Imperium

by Warringer

Chapter 3

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Major General Hotaru von Bismark, commander of the 66th Marine Expeditionary Unit, paced up and down in her office, grinding her teeth. She had never liked to play desk jockey, other than her little brother, who had been President for two runs. She still preferred to lead from the front, rather than hide behind some desk, even with now nearly a hundred years.

But as prolong treatments were common and her father had activated Ancient genes, it was possible that she would be nearly six hundred years old before she actually got any problems, or showed her age.

After a moment she stopped to stare at the virtual windowpane of her office, showing the large curve of the Orbital Ring, where ICS Market Garden was docked at the moment. Together with ICS Overlord, they were her command, two Block II Normandie LCVs and about eight thousand Marines, sailors and pilots.

To say that she was worried would have been an understatement. Something told her that they had only exchanged one war for another with the transfer and the light headache she felt ever since the transfer wasn't helping either.

The door signal made itself known after a while.

"Come in," she called out and turned her head slightly to look at the newcomer.

"I hope I don't interrupt your thoughts or something."

Hotaru chuckled slightly. It seemed that she would always be stuck with a Dilgar as her second in command. She had one in the 501st, why would the 66th be any different. Not that she had any problem with it. Especially since it happened to be her first commander after getting out of the officers course.

Colonel Mar'key, nicknamed 'Mike', was rather unique as far as Dilgar went. He was tall, muscular and someone who could be mistaken for a Norse warrior if it wasn't for the fact that he was looking very much like a Dilgar. And he had lost for a good amount of time, as the ship he had been assigned to got hit by a chance asteroid, lost its slipstream drive and had to limb to the next civilized planet at high sublight speeds, taking them more than 60 years.

"No, Mike," she said with a sigh." Not really. Just a bad feeling."

Mike nodded ans slowly walked up to stand next to her at the virtual window.

"Yes," he responded." That feeling as if you think there is another dome bursting."

Hotaru snorted. Mike had been born more than a hundred years ago on New Omelos, before the GDI had found them. He remembered every bad thing about the slums the domes of New Omelos had been back than.

She wanted to says something, but the intercom made itself known.

"Yes?" she asked into the room.

"Admiral Musashi from Shabazza, General."

She sighed and Mike chuckles slightly.

"Put it through."

"Yes, ma'am."

A short command over her implant caused the video screen to be displayed on the virtual window.

The head and upper body of Admiral Musashi appeared on the screen. After the moment it took for the connection to stabilize, he nodded at Hotaru and Mike.

"General, Colonel."

"Sir," Mike said and saluted, while Hotaru nodded in response.

"What can I do for you, Admiral," she asked after a moment." Are there any problems on a Tree or one of the refugee camps?"

Musashi shook his head and breathed in deep.

"That would have been too easy," he said, causing Hotaru to raise an eyebrow." No, its bigger. Much bigger."

Hotaru's eyes narrowed.

"How big."

"Galactic War big."

Next to Hotaru, Mike cursed silently under his breath in his native language. Hotaru noted for a moment that a good number of the curses were still from the time prior to the Dilgar contacts with Earth and wished that she wouldn't have been able to hear it.

"I'm all ears," she said and breathed in deep.

"I need the 66th and several of the other Marine Expeditionary Units to form a Marine Expeditionary Force for immediate deployment. You are going to have the command over that Force, General. And I need you ready yesterday. I'm sending you a file with everything you need to know."

Hotaru grit her teeth and for a moment she cursed internally.

"I'll see what I can do, Admiral."

Musashi nodded.

"The other Unit commanders are going to contact you soon. Shabazza out."

The video display disappeared and Hotaru cursed out loud, while Mike looked at her with a grim smile and the symbol of a successful file transfer appeared on the virtual window.

"Well, I always said that your rank is one to high for a MEU."

"Oh, shut up, Colonel."

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Sendal stepped up while the other Farseers in the Command Center of Iyanden looked at each other and started to debate. All the while the voice continued to ask if they required assistance.

Everyone heard the whispers of the Infinity Circuit and those souls who remembered the language being spoken by the Vox contact as being an ancient mon-keigh language, named English. Some of them had already translated what the voice had asked.

The voice offered help? That was something unheard to any Eldar. No one ever had offered them help, ever.

On the other hand, Sendal thought, they hadn't needed help this desperately before. Without help, the Tyranids would destroy Iyanden and if the Infinity Circuit was destroyed, their souls and those of their ancestors would be lost in the Warp and devoured by Slaanesh.

Sendal looked at his debating colleagues, shaking his head slightly. He breathed in deep and nodded to himself.

He could clearly remember his earlier vision. This system and those who lived in it were their only way to survive the attack of the Hive Fleet. And wasn't it the duty of a Farseer to ensure the survival of his race?

He licked his lips and breathed in again, forcing himself to calm down.

"Open a return channel," he finally said and the other Farseers stopped to stare at him.

"Are you mad?" one of them asked, but Sendal didn't answer him as he looked for the right words to react to the offered help.

"Uhm... yes."

In his own mind he wanted to slap himself. Very smooth. Just the right reaction of an Eldar to an inferior race. Oh well, it was a beginning, wasn't it?

He breathed in deep again

"This is Farseer Sendal of Craftworld Iyanden. We do require assistance."

Another voice returned over the Vox, while the other Farseers glared at Sendal.

"This is Admiral Musahi of the Habanake Clan, Interstellar Commonwealth Navy," the voice answered." We have your Craftworld and your persuaders on our sensors."

Sendal closes his eyes for a moment, before giving a look towards his colleagues, who were back to looking at each other and debating among themselves. As far as he knew up until now, Iyanden was still in the outer fridges of this solar system, but considering that there was a small ship on a course parallel to their Craftworld, that was not much of a surprise.

"What assistance can you render?" he asked after a moment and after a moment he added. "Admiral?"

"We will send you a fast response fleet," the foreign admiral said after a moment." Some heavy battleships and a ground support force."

"Ground support?" Sendal asked after a moment.

Did that ship have such powerful sensors that it was able to see where Tyranid forces were invading the Craftworld? And why had they not noticed those sensors before?

"I am pretty sure that you already have," the Admiral said after a moment," or will receive some... visitors."

They were guessing? Sendal wondered, but shook his head. Than he looked back at the image of that small ship on a parallel course. If that ship and the ship that had been destroyed were any indication, they would not help that much.

On the other hand they were adding more cannon fodder for the Craftworlds defense. It might not be very much, but maybe it would allow them more time to find another way to call for help from the other Craftworlds.

A short glance over to his colleagues and the emotions he could feel from them, showed that they were thinking the same.

"We would be..." he stopped to search for the right worlds," grateful if you could do that."

"Good," the Admiral continued." We'd like you to change your course to follow a path past the sixth, fifth, fourth, second planets to the third planet of our system."

Sendal blinked and looked towards the others. The Infinity Circuit had already reacted and a representation of the system was hanging in the center of the room. A single line showed a course that was following the way points the Admiral had given them. It was rather twisted the way it was displayed.

"The course is... strage," he noted after a moment.

"That may be," the Admiral responded," But it bring Iyanden, and with it the Tyranid fleet, into the primary firing range of several major defense platforms of the Solar Defense Grid. We want to make them run the gauntlet."

Sendal breathed in deep. While his vision had shown him that this was the only possible way of survival, the other Farseers didn't have that vision.

"And who tells us that you are not shooting at us too?"

The Admiral didn't respond for several moment.

"I swear on my honor that we are not going to fire at you," he than said, sounding not very pleased." If those Tyranids destroy your Craftworld, they destroy us. One near destruction of the IC this month is enough..."

Sendal blinked.

"Near destruction?" he wondered out loud.

"That has time for later."

Sendal looked back at his colleagues, who finally nodded.

"We will change our course. When will your fleet reinforce ours?"

"They will be on the way shortly," the Admiral said after a moment." We would also want to give you the choice of evacuating all your non-combatants."

Sendal looked up and stared at the display of the small ship. Around him he could feel how his colleagues were equally surprised.

"Evacuate?" he asked out loud.

A voice in the back of his mind noted that it would save more lives on the long run, at least those of the children and anyone else who wasn't a warrior. But on the other hand...

He looked back at his colleagues.

"Get them to safety and make sure they are not harmed."

The voice of the Admiral once again sounded like it had sounded when he had sworn that they would not fire at Iyanden. Something said Sendal that the Admiral was meaning it.

"We need to talk about that first."

"Not a problem," the Admiral said." That would be all for now. I will send a officer with the fleet who will be my personal contact to you. Anything you would like to know."

Sendal nodded to himself and once again looked back at the other Farseers.

"No, we have no questions at the moment."

"Good. Admiral Musashi out."

The Command Center fell silent for several minutes, while Iyanden changed its course, controlled by the souls inside the Infinity Circuit.

"You will deal with them," one of the other Farseers said after a long while, pointing at Sendal.

Sendal nodded. Yes, he had expected something like that.