"Bring us around to heading two-two-four." Lieutenant Carmina barked as she paced around the bridge of Crimson One, her jack-booted heels ringing on the riveted steel deck. Nothing had been on the sensors for hours and she was worried. There was always calm before the storm and this was it.
"New heading at bearing two-two-four confirmed." The metallic voice of one of the many bridge servitors droned. A fair number of the bridge crew were servitors, performing mindless tasks such as course correction, communication, and senor monitoring. The more important tasks were done by living crew, interrupting data, gunnery, what have you.
"Anything on the sensor sweeps?" Carmina barked again, this time she flopped down in her command chair and pulled a vintage bottle of amansec out of a refrigerator unit built into the chair. Carefully, she poured a glass of the potent liquor and slammed it back in one gulp, wincing as it burned down her throat.
"Nothing, Captain." Another servitor droned. The sensors were also carefully monitored by a crew member, Jenks or Henks or something like that. Carmina didn't remember, it didn't matter.
"Second-Lieutenant Helmsberg wishes to open communication." Another one of the damn servitors spoke out, this one's voice was metallic and raspy.
"Open the channel!" Carmina yelled as she opened a miniature pic-screen built into her command chair. The pock-marked face of Second-Lieutenant Helmsberg greeted her. Helmsberg was young, about thirty and usually deferred to Carmina's experience. She had fought a brief action during the last Black Crusade and won a few small honors.
"What is it, Helmsberg?" Carmina asked tersely as she drank another shot of amansec. This one still burned but it calmed her down.
"Are you picking up an anomaly in sector three-four-six, Ma'am?" Helmsberg asked, his eyes shifting from side to side as if looking at something on his ship, Crimson Three.
"Sensors! Are you picking something up in three-four-six!" Carmina shouted, shifting her gaze from the pic-screen to the rest of the bridge.
"One small reading, traveling rapidly towards our location. Suggest course correction to avoid collision." The servitor droned back in its metallic monotone.
"Battle stations! The raiders are back! Helmsberg, prepare your ship!' Carmina punched two runes on the pic-screen, which brought up the face of Second-Lieutenant Lestat. He had a square-cut face, obviously some Imperial noble stuck on a frigate until he proved himself. 'Prepare for action, Crimson Two!"
"What? For the one weird reading on sector three-four-six or something? Its probably an asteroid or debris. Get over it." With that, Lestat's face disappeared and the screen went black. He cut off communication. Most commanders would have ignored the reading, but not only did she intensely dislike Lestat, she just had a hunch it was something more.
"Charge prow laser batteries! Check the turret servitors and turn off that damn siren!" After Carmina called battle stations, a red warning light came on automatically. It made her head ache.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"What do you mean, the holofield on your Hellebore is malfunctioning!" Fleet Captain Elthan yelled into the wrathbone screen. On the other side, Captain Faeruithir gestured hopeless with his hands. Like all Eldar, his face was thin, long and pale and a shimmering soul-stone was set in his chest-armor.
"An unexpected malfunction in the holofield generator has occurred. The field is still up, Fleet Captain, but we may be visible to the mon-keigh." The entire fleet, some thirty ships, was powering towards the first planet, Cyrus Jundi under the cover of their holofields. Something like this might compromise the entire fleet.
"Can you fix it, Faeruithir or do I need to find someone who can?" Elthan said quietly. He wasn't serious, Faeruithir was a very good captain, he just needed to get things moving.
"Not now. Might I suggest my squadron disengages our holofields and attack the mon-keigh from a different direction from the rest of the fleet as a diversion?" Faeruithir suggested. It was things like this that made his a good captain.
"Good. Hit them from the galactic west and leave none alive!" Elthan pressed a rune on the screen and began to get his ship, the Shadow cruiser Dark Death.
"Shut off the holofields, arm the torpedoes, charge the lance battery and change heading to eight-two-five!" Faeruithir was standing tall on his small bridge, one hand on his shuriken pistol, one on the intricately detailed wrathbone railing that separated the upper command bridge from the lower bridge. The first thing he noticed was the bridge lights grew imperceptibly brighter. The holofields drew enormous power from the generators, which was now largely transferred to the shields.
Faeruithir pressed several more runes on the screen, bringing up a three dimensional view of the area. Towards the large green orb of the planet, three red triangles sat, numbers designating their position in the galactic plane. Behind and east of his ships, which were three green spikes, sat the mass of Eldar ships, which were steady moving towards the planet.
"Have the mon-keigh seen us?" Faeruithir asked of his sensor chief, Icarieane, who was hunched over a glowing sensor screen.
"Yes, Captain. We have been picked up on their sensor sweeps and it appears they are powering towards us."
- - - - - - - - - - -
"Three new contacts, bearing eight-two-three, heading toward bearing eight-two-five." Called out the sensor servitor from its permanent post.
"Change to intercept course!" barked Lieutenant Carmina again. She flicked on the pic-screen and open a channel with Second-Lieutenant Lestat.
"Get your bloody ship ready and stay in formation!" Carmina shouted into the link. Before he could response, she closed the channel and punched another rune, opening the channel to Crimson Three. Helmsberg looked nervous, sweat on his brow already.
"Helmsberg, stay in formation, okay? Keep your prow batteries charged and your shields up and you'll be fine." Carmina knew how to keep his spirits up.
"Alright, Lieutenant." Before he could say something else, Carmina cut the link.
"Make sure the shield generators are on and have fire crews ready!' Carmina called out to no one in particular. Her crew already knew what to do, but it made her feel better to yell. That and another drink. 'Sensors, can you tell what those readings are?"
"Energy discharge, shield type and sensor return indicates they are Eldar ships.' Jenks/Henks called out from his station on the massive bridge console. He turned and looked at Carmina. 'Damned xenos, ma'am."
"Distant to them?" she called out again.
"Ten-thousand kilometers, ma'am. We'll be in range in about twelve minutes."
"Have someone tell the Cyrus Jundi garrison to get ready in case we fail." Carmina said to no one in particular as she settled back into her chair to wait twelve nerve-wracking minutes.