Imperium
by Warringer
Chapter 2
---------------------------------------------------------
Space had seemed to turn to a blue-white color for just a moment as it happened.
Farseer Sendal had meditated in one of the many bio-domes of Iyanden as it had happened, trying to find a way to defend his Craftworld from the Tyranid Hive Fleet that was following them through space for some time now and attacked now and than, drawing away the ships of the escort fleet and landing small invasion forces.
Even now there were battles being fought within the great Craftworld and with the numeric advantage of the Tyranids is all seemed as if it was only a matter of time for them to win. The massive Warp Disturbance the Hive Fleet created was far to strong for the Web Way portal to overcome and call for help from other Craftworlds.
Than the blue-white glow, stronger than the light of the Infinity Circuit that illuminated the bio-dome, had casted its light through the bio-dome and even into the interior of the dome itself. As it faded away as rapidly as it had come, a new yellow light was visible in the center of the view outside, representing a new sun where there should be none.
He had stared at the small yellow light for a few moments before a vision of the future claimed him.
Before most of his visions of the future had contained only death, but this was different.
He saw a blue-white-brown planet, surrounded by a strange silvery ring. Iyanden was orbiting that world together with a large cloud of unknown ships of all sizes. High above the planet was a bubble of red energy. Waves of Hive Ships were clashing at the energy barrier as both Eldar ships and warships of unknown design stood against the waves of Hive Ships destroying each of them.
As the vision vanished, he breathed in deep, feeling something that was rare for his race in these desperate times. The fleet beginnings of Hope.
He got up and rapidly made his way towards the Center of Iyanden, where the Command Center of the massive Craftworld was located.
After entering the large Command Center he had listened to what his colleagues had found out since it had happened. He kept out of the discussion, still needing to think about his vision.
A whole solar system had appeared out of nowhere. While it was not completely unheard of, there had been whole solar systems swallowed up by warp storms and relocated, there had been no effects of a warp storm. The only effect of the Warp were the ones created by the Hive Fleet.
But still there were strange things going on as the whole system seemed as if it didn't completely belong into the materium and was still falling back into the full materium, but from what appeared to be another realm besides the Warp.
There had been a few notions of Farseers talking about the Ancient Enemy, the C'Tan and their Necron puppets, but everything pointed to something else. There was Vox chatter in almost all Vox frequencies, where the Necrons were simply silent. Most of the Vox chatter was also highly encrypted and compressed, showing that whoever was the originator of the chatter had reached at least a certain level of technology.
The Tyranids had also noticed the system and a small portion of the Hive fleet changed course to move towards one of the planets of this new solar system. It would be a pitty that these people in this system would not live much longer, but Iyanden couldn't help them, and even if they could, he doubted that it would be worth the cost in Eldar lives.
Sendal shook his head and stepped forward.
"No, I believe that it is they who will be helping us."
"Explain."
"I have meditated to find a way to defend our Craftworld as this system appeared. I saw Eldar and unknown vessels fight side by side to defeat the Tyranids above an artificially ringed world in this system."
His colleagues looked at him for a moment before shaking their heads.
Only a few moments later that thought changed slightly as a small ship appeared out of nowhere, just a lightsecond away from Iyanden, seemingly observing the large Craftworld. And the Farseers of Iyanden observed the small craft in response.
It was far smaller than any vessel they had seen before and seemed to be more a ship for system defense than anything else.
Far behind them, another vessel had appeared to observe the Tyranid fleet that had split of the main fleet and here the Tyranids were their predictable selves, moving tho intercept the lone ship to destroy or devour it.
It was surprising that the ship, it had to be a form of escort cruiser, survive the first attacks of the Hive ships and turn to flee. But it disappeared before it could run and had most likely been destroyed.
It was that moment as a Vox message was directed at the Craftworld by the small craft that was observing them.
"This is Solar Fleet Command Shabazza," a voice said over the Vox and some of the souls inside the Infinity Circuit recognized the language as being English, an ancient human language," To unknown Craftworld. Do you require assistance?"
Sendal allowed himself a smug smile.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Explain," Musashi said, being the first to react to Shabazza and what he had said.
"I was conferring with Seneca and Nathan," the Solar Tree said after a few moments," They have recognized Sigma One and the contacts of Sigma Two."
It was hard to stare at someone you were talking to, when you were standing inside of said person, so Musashi chose to stare at one of the wooden wall of the Naval Command Center.
"They recognized them?"
Shabazza seemed to chuckle slightly.
"I am sure that some of the people in the Command Center have also recognized these vessels."
Musashi grumbled and glared around for a moment.
"Don't beat around the bush."
"It seems that we have arrived in the Warhammer 40k universe. Sigma One seems to be an Eldar Craftworld and the objects making up Sigma Alpha and Sigma Beta seem to be Tyranid Hive ships. We are pretty much screwed if we do not react as soon as possible."
Before Musashi was able to ask what Shabazza meant, a call came from one of the technicians.
"Sir[iLegolas [/iis reporting that several of the ships of Sigma Beta are on an intercept course. They request engagement rules."
Musashi's head turned to the holographic projection that had changed to show a small system grid that contained [iLegolas [/iand parts of Sigma Beta. Ten of the Sigma Beta vessels were moving towards Legolas on an intercept course.
"Sigma Beta has the first shot," he said after a moment and grit his teeth.
"That might be the wrong decision, Admiral," Shabazza noted." A Tyranid Hive Fleet is bad news, sir."
Shabazza was silent for a moment and these Tyranids were moving closer to Legolas.
"Think of the Tyranids as biological Borg, sir," Shabazza continued, knowing about Musashi's Star Trek collection," Or as the big bad brother of the Zerg. They are all about simply devouring all biological matter they come across and add its DNA to themselves. They attack anything organic on sight to devour it."
Musashi stared at the wall he had stared at before.
"They can't be that bad..."
"They are, sir," Shabazza said just as the Tyranid ships opened fire.
Musashi stared at the display, his eyes wandering towards the Craftworld.
"And them?"
"An Elder Craftworld. Either Iyanden or Biel Tan. They are the only ones so far who have been attacked by the Tyranids directly according to the Warhammer 40k fluff. Iyanden was attacked by Hive Fleet Kraken, whereas Biel Tan was attacked by Hive Fleet Tarasque."
On the display Legolas returned fire and launched their fighters. Musashi grit his teeth.
"Iyanden was 'only' just mostly depopulated," Shabazza said and everyone could hear the quotation marks." Biel Tan was completely destroyed and its population devoured. But the forces of Biel Tan managed to weaken Hive Fleet Tarasque sufficiently enough to allow the Imperium of Man to destroy them."
On the display Legolas turned tail and ran. There was still a telemetry link and a small 'health bar' was shown above the Warlock, showing its shield strength. The bar was dropping significantly as the Tyranid ships attacked them.
Musashi closes his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep. As he opened his eyes, Legolas had disappeared from the display.
"Legolas has arrived at Triton Base, Sir."
Muashi breathed in deep again and nodded.
"Good," he said," Now get me Farseer and try to establish contact to this Craftworld."
---------------------------------------------------------
"Oh my god."
Marcus John Ryan closed his eyes as he dropped his head on his hands, while his elbows rested on his desk in The Office.
More and more light filtered through the large window as Atlantis surfaced.
After a few moments he looked up and at the holographic display of Merlin who stood in front of his desk.
"Please tell me this is all a bad cruel joke."
Merlin sighed and dropped his head slightly.
"I am sorry, Mr. President, but this is not a joke. Both Seneca and Nathan have confirmed their theories. We have been transfered into the Milkyway Galaxy of the Warhammer 40k universe."
Marcus looked around, helplessly, and into the faces of his staff, who looked equally helpless. Marcus used to play Warhammer 40k in his youth and so he had a good idea of the universe they had been dropped in. And it wasn't something he liked.
He still had his old Imperial Guard and Space Wolf armies carefully tugged away behind glass and he had no illusions what could happen should the Imperium of Man find Sol and Earth. If they were lucky, they would just invade and take over the system. If not...
Marcus shook his head and looked towards the display that showed the vast bulk of the Tyranid Hive Fleet. First they had to survive this attack, than they could worry about the Imperium of Man, Chaos, The Dark Elder, Orks and Necrons.
Eldar and Tau on the other hand were only sowhat minor concerns as you could sowhat talk to the Tau and the Eldar were very likely to leave you alone. But as it seemed that they had to worry about a Craftworld, they would need to deal with the Eldar sooner or later.
And there were other problems especially with the Tryranid Hive Fleet already in system.
"Merlin," he said after a moment," How high is the potential of Genestealer Cults here?"
Merlin tilted his head as if he listened to invisible voices.
"The possibility of Genestealer Cults is middle to high, especially in the aftermath of the attack. I would recommend DNA screening by Ais of any survivors of damaged and destroyed spaceships, as well as any ground troops who have direct contact with the Tyranid Invasion forces."
Marcus nodded.
"And Chaos Cults?"
"Low to middle. Conventional screening done by Seneca should be all that is needed to deal with Chaos Cults. The way I see it they are not very unlike the grow of Shadow cells in the last twenty years. Through I recommend a volunteer screening of any psychically active person for Chaos related activity."
Marcus nodded again.
"Seneca, please increase your screening for anything that would indicate Chaos or Genestealer Corruption."
As a response, a second holographic projection appeared beside Merlin, that of a lean afro-American with a huge afro haircut, dressed in something that appeared as a black SS-like uniform, a cap perked on top of the afro.
"By your command, Mr. President. For the Commonwealth."
Marcus just let his head drop to his table as Seneca disappeared, banging his head on the table lightly.
