A Thundering of Profits

by Jad4400

A rogue trader and his fleet are blown into the Mass Effect Universe. As they cruise the galaxy looking for adventure, power and most importantly profit they must survive the many challenges ahead. One of which is the fleet of Kaptain Bludchoppa, a Freeboota bent on pillaging the galaxy! Caught in the crossfire, the peoples of the Mass Effect universe must scramble to survive.

2. Chapter 2

"Wot woz dat?" Kaptain Bludchoppa yelled as the ship vanished from screen "Wez jus tapped dat ship wif da zappa!"

"Dunno kap'n, iz jus popped like uh squig dat atez unnuver squig" Mek Gobshack answered looking at the screens through his scrap metal eye. "Dat dere jus ain't proppa for ship!

"Wez aint gunna getz loot blowin up all ur loot boatz!" Duffwort Wazgrim yelled slamming his choppa into the deck, a shower of spark shooting up and scattering several grecthin in the catwalk above. "Ow wez supposed to WAARGH witout lootz for da meks? Wez need mor boatz, mor shootas, mor choppas an" A large mechanical gauntlet doffed the kommando and sent him flying into a panel. Slamming into it with a loud thud, a rain of hail and metal filled the bridge, and as the kommando grunted, the small limp arm of a gretchin could be seen underneath, twitching reflexively.

"Ya talkz too much" the Kaptain roared as his large power klaw opened and closed with a pneumonic hiss "I'llz getz uz mor loot, wez jus need to git our bearins and wez go lootin da way!" he yelled, filling the halls with his voice "U ere dat?! Da kaptin will getz ya all dat loot youz could want and Ill getz uz to sum fightin too I willz!" he finished to a rousing WAAAGGH from the halls as his crew cheered. "Gobshack, do youz knowz wherein da galaxy are we? He asked, voice lowered by several magnitudes.

"Dunno kapt'n, dat warp fingy messed all kinds uf stuf up it did. I'll be needin zome time ta getz me bearins" he said screwing his face in concentration as he looked at the crudely drawn charts, and then out the window of the bridge "Wuldnt uh weirdboy be betta fror figurin dis out dough?"

"Bah, wez dont need no stinkin weirdboy. 'Sides, Mister Nubbitz iz stil gettin 'is 'ead fixed by da dok afta dat splosion las week!" the Kaptian said.

Gobshack continued to stare out the window. He needed to get them moving as quickly as he could, least the Kaptain lose patience and take his head like his predecessor. He could always take them in a random direction, he'd done so before, but with no idea where they were or where any fighting was, he couldn't just chance them going off and finding nothing. Putting a hand to the window, he pretended to be working as he looked into space. Focusing his metal eye he looked at the ship they'd just destroyed. As the eye zoomed and took readings he noticed something.

"Oi kaptain, da ship's still dere!" he said pointing out into space " 'Ell, 'alf da ship anyway, but erez still zomthings dere! Wez might be findin uz some loot, or least some uvers to go fightin!" he finished triumphantly.

"Good eye Gobshack, knewz ya werez right boy for da job! Oi ya gitz, move da Krooza an git da Big Scoopa ready!"

...

Parvik awoke and noticed several things. The first was that his emergency oxygen was on, judging from the sound of his own breathing and the stale taste in the air in his mouth. Second was that the console in front of him was cracked and after pulling away a few errant shards of plastic and microfiber from his faceplate, he could tell it was from where his head had slammed into it.

The third was the massive hole in the ship where the CIC used to be. Craning his head he could see a massive twenty meter-wide hole that cut clean through the center map display and information center that the Captain and several bridge members would have surrounded. In addition, several more meters of forward walkway, with the accompanying crew troughs had vanished along with the ship's brain. Squinting, he saw that really it was only a few beams of metal and some wiring that was keeping the Belchick from being neatly split in two, if neatly could adequately describe a hole punched through the hull.

"Anyone there?" he asked into his suit's radio. He silently thanked the spirits for ship protocol, all members of the crew when not in their airtight bunks were required to wear their armor at all times. In an emergency situation like the one he found himself in, they wouldn't suddenly all die if the hull was breached. Turian preparedness at its finest. Just as he finished his silent prayer the radio replied "Parvik, that you?"

"Lamuss? He asked, recognizing the pilots voice, but double checking for the sheer relief of hearing another member of the crew. "Yeah it's me, I just woke up. What the hell happened?"

"I don't know, I was flying us one second and the next we were slammed with the hammer of the spirits. Crash chair took most of the impact, but I think I broke a rib or three. Captains dead I'm pretty sure."

"Yeah I saw the hole. What made that?" he asked as he unbuckled from his chair, floating in zero-g. He knew it was the large ship that had appeared off their bow, what he was really asking was how it had done what it had done.

"Your guess is as good as mine" the pilot's voice said "Best I could tell it looked like some kind of beam of light."

"A DEW?" Parvik asked as he struggled to boot up his console with emergency power from his omni-tool. He'd wanted to pull all sensor logs from the encounter. "That's impossible, the Salarians have the longest ranged one of those and that's in the ultraviolet. I don't think we'd actually see it like that" As the control crackled several times, he added "Plus the ablative armor should have bought us at least a second or two"

Lamuss groaned and Parvik heard him say "Thank you" to someone he couldn't see "Yeah well someone obviously forgot to tell whatever's out there how the Citadel thinks lasers ought to work" he said, voice flanging in annoyance. Looking back at the hole, Parvik noticed that despite the damage, the cut was clean, had it been a kinetic impactor, the edges would have been far more ragged than they were and the lack of shrapnel seemed too tidy as well. It really did look like an over-sized laser had crossed the distance and bored right through their ship in one hit. The omni-tool chimed as the console returned to life. Moving hastily, he initiated a data dump to his tool's memory files, command would want as much intelligence as they could get on these things. "Where are you now?" he asked as the console's files finished downloading.

"Medbay. About a dozen or more of us are here, there's emergency atmosphere and it's sealed tight. We were actually getting ready to send a couple people up to grab you and anyone else that might still be up there. Vakeren's got what's left of engineering trying to plug the drive core, it's still spinning and leaking eezo everywhere, gotta get that shit on lockdown. You getting the intel?" he asked.

"Yep, just finished. Should I head down?"

"Yeah, emergency beacon should have deployed and we've got enough consumables to last a couple weeks. We'll sit tight for the next patrol to come get us, then we can warn command about whatever this is and th..."

"Oh shit!" Parvik yelled as his console returned more readings "That ship... Its turning around, its coming right for us!" he said, feeling a pit in his stomach. The massive ship was accelerating right for their wreck, having pulled a two hundred and seventy degree turn to line back up with them. As the faint redundant LADAR arrays sent pings out into space, a better image of the ship emerged. The odd angles present were still there, the thing looked just as much like it had been pulled from a scrapheap as it had been earlier, but a new shape was pointing out from the front of the ship. Conical, it extended outward as the ship moved forward.

"Is that...a funnel?" he asked himself as the LADAR scans intensified their outline of the ship. After several more passes the thing had finished extending its self and magnetic readings could be detected around it. "Oh shit, that's a funnel" he realized as the girth of the thing formed one long tunnel right into the maw of the ship.

"Lamuss, get everyone to the armory! I think we're about to be boarded!"

…

From the hand of Captain Josiah Patternock Merriweather von Helvik

As I awoke from my micronap I realize that a great deal of organization will have to be done. While this will not be the first time we find ourselves cut off from the Imperium by a vast distance, given the influence of possible warp villainy, there exists a strong possibility this period of isolation will not be for the short term and thus, a proper inventory and course of action will be needed.[1]

The first thing we all noticed was the absence of the Anomaly. Not only is the warp rift gone, but the septuple of stars that orbited it have vanished as well. In place instead is a single dull orange star with one cold world orbiting at the outer limits of the system. In addition to the xeno artifact of indeterminate origin. Whatever occurred during the battle, we've clearly moved a great distance. Where is still currently being determined.

More pressingly though is the total absence of light from the Astronomican. Navigator Kessler alerted me to this fact the moment I returned to the bridge. His third eyes open as he flailed his arms around, still half strapped to his chair and dragging the sacred instrumentation as he struggled towards me. Closing my eyes, I was forced to tackle the man and cover his forehead with the navigational band his kind wore to keep the rest of the bridge from being petrified. Just as I finished strapping him to his chair my vox was inundated with voices from all the captains in the fleet, each reporting similar situations, their navigators becoming panicked as their golden line back to Imperial space was absent.

If my words seem calm than assume it is due the inability of this damnable quill to properly convey emotions via my diction. Without the light of the Emperor's beacon, we'll be unable to move apart from short jumps, and if we were blown into the Halo Stars like I suspect, then the volatile warp currents of the region will make even the smallest of jumps incredibly hazardous, and without the great light...Its quite clear something is amiss, and that the damnable forces of the Warp have possibly doomed us to rot in the far reaches. With the panic and catatonia of our navigators we'll have little information available for ourselves until one of them snaps out of it. Until then though, more drastic measures will be needed.

I have no choice, I've called a meeting of the Estates Capital. [2 ]In several hours, the captains of my fleet along with a few ranking retainers will gather as we try and determine our next course of action. While I of course have sole and final authority in all matters of decisions for the fleet, I find that pooling the collective knowledge at our disposal, as well as the resources we have available will be critical to survival.

All warship captains will be present, and the merchant ships will select one of their number to be their representative at this meeting. Sure they might grumble about not getting to all sit in, but when we have more freighters than warships that's just not practical. Plus they know better than to try and go alone.[3]

To be called to attendance:

Captain Josiah Patternock Merriweather von Helvik-Legitimate Business Acquisition

Captain Palamon Leinwand- Starlight of Apollas[4]

Captain Ronni Lanate- Lance of Hawk

Captain Rachele Danver De Banzi[5] - Fabled Phoenix

Captain Clodius Albinus-Eternal Crimson

Explorator Captain: Torth Bredahl- Heculiean

Captain Zita Jeg- Ricanteu

Captain Heironymus Found- Foremost Effect

Captain Shanice Calgar- His Mighty Resplendence

Captain Hastus Lese-Hero's Soul (Merchant Representative)

Arch-Bishop Vilma Sarina

Navigator Kessler Stha[6]l

Magos Brith

Sergeant General Avidius Cassius Hussian

Astropath Augustus Hoyal

Archmagos Felton (Mechanicus Representative)[7]

[1] The last time we accidentally misjumped and wound up far beyond the light of the Emperor we lost our Mass Conveyor on the trip back home and nearly half the Acquisition's crew starved when an algae extruder failed. When we discovered the large crates of frozen snchozberries on one of the ships in the fleet I learned a hard lesson in logistics.

[2] Last called thirty seven years ago during that particular incident with the Eldar farseer.

[3] Not attending the meeting, but will surely be kept in the loop will be the Sharper Proth. He and his band have a knack for finding their way around unknown reaches. Plus the promise of new meals for their kind will likely be a powerful incentive to remain on the sole mobile platform they're on for light-years.

[4] My backup flag ship.

[5] I still owe her a hundred thrones for that game of chess I lost last year.

[6] Assuming he's in control of his faculties.

[7] Given the sheer number of Mechanicus personnel presently stuck in the cargo holds of our transports, keeping them informed will likely prove crucial, though fortunately most of their "number" is comprised of servitors.

…

In the Belchick's lower deck, the crew scrambled, trying to finish a seemingly endless stream of tasks before their ship was swallowed by the oncoming giant. Each person's omni-tool was keyed to the LADAR readouts as it counted down time until contact. Parvik and Lamuss were struggling to access the computer core, sealed behind pair of heavy blast-shields. The two had placed a crowbar in the center of the door and were prying with all their strength. After pushing for several seconds, they fell to the ground as the bar slid out

"Ugh. Crap, that didn't work." Lammus wheezed as he clutched his side, his armor still half disassembled from where the doctor had been wrapped his chest in a gel cast, a temporary fix for his broken ribs. "Whose job was it to purge the nav data again?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"I think that was Telik's job". Parvik said as he stood, helping the pilot up with an extended hand "Would have been the first thing he did actually the moment the fighting started, but since he was in the CIC...well" he made an "explosion" gesture with his hands.

"Great, so we got popped before we could dump the data and the computer room just so happens to be sealed due to combat damage since the automatic system doesn't want anyone fucking around with it when it goes into emergency mode. Wonderful! Who designed this shit again?"

Parvik didn't answer as he stuck the bar back in the door. True the ships fail-safes were now keeping them from dumping the data, but he couldn't really fault the designers on that one. The system had been designed so one or two keystrokes were all that was needed to initiate a purge of sensitive information. The expectation was that in deep space, one couldn't really ambush a ship, the heat and electromagnetic signatures would light up a target long before a kinetic round would have hit the ship. A frigate, which by its design, tended to be the kind of ship that did the ambushing, not visa-versa was seen as doubly hard to hit, but to be safe, all Hierarchy ships fitted for long range patrol on the frontier could dump sensitive data in the event of a hostile first contact situation. That was the theory anyways, the Belchick had proven a practical way the system could be circumvented.

Parvik heaved as the bar fell to the side again. Useless. They'd need a torch and an hour or so to clear sealed door by his reckoning. Grunting, he threw his hands in the air "Well this isn't going to work."

Lamuss glanced at the door and back to Parvik "Well then how are going to get in? Its not like we have the time to cut the thing."

"We don't...but we could blast in." Parvik stood, cursing his slip of memory and for wasting their time "Don't the marines have cutting charges for boarding actions?" he asked rhetorically. Lamuss put a hand to his forehead and shook his head, cursing to himself.

A few minutes later, Parvik had affixed a small circular package to the door, and retreated back to the corridor wall. He rounded the corner and activated the charge on his omni-tool. Feeling a slight thump, he felt the rush of air as the cluster of explosives forced their way past the armored bulkhead and crashed into the computer room. Running in, he saw a bank of computers and their servers, some still smoking from the blast and more than one monitor panel cracked or broken from the impact. Finding a relatively undamaged computer, Parvik initiated a full purge of the system, all sensitive information, navigational charts, crew dossiers, everything deemed critical was wiped away from the system with a few commands. He took a breath before the ship shook violently under his feet. Over his comm he heard Lamuss's voice "Contact, they've hooked us", looking at his omni-tool, he saw the readouts vanish as the Belchick was engulfed in the belly of the strange ship.

He took a breath of air, stale as it was and steeled himself. They hadn't used the escape pods once the ship turned around, they'd figured there was little point to floating in small pods for the ship to capture, instead they were opting to make a stand in the wreck of the Belchick where they could at least group together for protection. He'd finished basic training like all his fellow turians, but opted for service in the navy as opposed to the marines or army. He was more than willing to fight for his people, but preferred some significant distance between himself and anything shooting at them. As they were being reeled in, a play of emotions had flowed through his as he prepared. He didn't want to be there, but the others needed as many shooters as possible and regardless of his discomfort and if he admitted to himself, fear, he at least resolved himself to fight alongside the family he'd served with for the better part of couple years. He owed them that much.

Parvik was jostled around some more as he struggled to reach the mess hall, where what was left of the crew had gathered. A trio of marines were passing out sidearms and other munitions. Without thinking, he grabbed an offered heavy pistol and synced the heat monitor to his omni-tool; others grabbed pistols and a few took the spare assault rifles. Lamuss took a shotgun. Beneath them, the ship groaned as it adjusted gravity, hearing a crash and long scraping sound of metal from the front and a new noticeable tilt from the rear of the ship, one of the marine said "There goes the bow" with a dry voice. The lieutenant, Tarqis, addressed the group.

"Here's the plan, once we're clamped down we head to the most defensible portion of scrap left on this ship and you all hole up there. Servus and myself will head to the opening and try and open a comm with whatever just blasted us. Before we start shooting them, we have to assume that this could be some kind of misunderstanding" he said to a grumble of disagreement from the crew "I know, I know, but protocol's protocol and I'd rather not fuck up this situation any more than it already is. If they start shooting, we shoot back. If they offer to take us prisoner, we do that. If they offer a magical ride back to the Citadel, we take that option. Anything but fighting if we can help it, we might be the Hierarchy's finest, but even we're not taking this damn ship with only three marines. Now if we had four we might be in business" he finished to a small chuckle from some of the crew, more out of nervousness than general humor. As he felt his stomach move up his body, following by a thunderous crash and sudden stop, Parvik knew the ship had been dropped.

Syncing their comms and video feeds to the marine's helmets, they watched from their position as Tarqis and Servus climbed their way out of the twisted hallways back to the hole in the ship's front. As the marine with them had said, the bow was sheered away and the ship was now opened to whatever was outside, presently that was a massive cavernous hold. The camera swiveled as the lieutenant turned his head from side to side. Parvik saw the dilapidated hanger, loose wires arched electricity between themselves while showering the hanger in a dazzle of sparks. Bits of scrap metal dangled from the ceiling and poked out from the wall, to say nothing of the mess that littered the floor beneath their ship. Gears, metal bars, twisted pieces of scrap, random nozzles, bits of electrical wiring and circuitry and a whole scrapyard worth of other parts were scattered around. Above and below, a loud thunking sound could be heard.

"What is all this?" Lamuss asked, looking at Parvik "The whole place is a damn dump! Did this thing really kill our ship?"

"Scavengers maybe?" Parvik offered "They could be nomads like the Quarians and their ships are falling apart?"

"You'd think they'd keep better care of their gear then. Say what you will about the canheads, but they run some orderly ships, and I don't think they'd leave a bunch of useful junk laying around like this"

"Contact!" Servus's voice came in over the comms. Looking back at the camera, Parvik saw a flash of movement coming from a scattering of rusted out cargo crates. Bursting out of the boxes in a hail of rust and scrap came an onrushing of what could only be described as a red fleshy balls with a pair of legs and a giant mouth full of teeth. Tarqis ordered them to halt, and when they didn't, opened fire.

The first thing Parvik noticed was that the things were tough. A single burst from the marine's assault rifles did little to halt one of the balls. It took both soldiers concentrating fire for couple seconds to put one of the things down. Parvik ran the numbers in his head, the amount of fire they'd just put into this unarmored ball of teeth was a little bit more than what'd normally be needed to wear down the barrier and armor of a typical soldier. The things didn't seem to have any armor or barriers themselves, so they'd just taken the fire to their bodies until they died. Only a korgan, varren or particularly pissed off vorcha could say the same thing.

Tarqis and Servus continued to shoot, taking uncomfortably long stops to let their rifles vent as they overheated. By the third pause, most of the flesh balls had been killed but a few were still running towards the marines. Servus opened fire first as their guns cooled yet again, taking out another one of the balls as other two continued to thunder forward. Parvik watched as the balls squatted on their stumpy legs and launched themselves forward towards the marines. Tarqis caught one in the air with his rifle's fire, but the other collided with Servus and the two tumbled back into the ship. Watching in horror on the vid cam, the crew saw the thing dig its teeth into Servus's side and shook itself and the flailing turian violently from side to side. Once or twice it would chew, slicing through more armor and skin. Servus's screams filled their comms until a flash of fire came from the opening of the hole and the thing fell to its side, dead. Parvik noted that had been riddled with more than a dozen bullet holes, worse, Servus's arm was still clutched in its mouth. Parvik killed the feed from Servus's camera just as the marine rolled his head over and saw the half torn tendons poking from his shoulder's socket, blood spurting up in sickening uneven squirts between exposed muscle and bone.

"Spirits" he heard several mumble.

Tarqis started moving down to help his comrade. He was almost back in the ship when a loud voice boomed through the empty hold and filled their ears. Parvik and the rest couldn't make sense of it, but a few sounds stood out.

"Oi" he could several of the voices say, while another couple grumbled and growled "squigs."

Tarqis's voice echoed from the ship as he called out the aliens.

"My name is Lieutenant Arvinnian Tarqis, Hierarchy Seventy Eighth Scout Flotilla. Who are you? Why did you attack our ship? He asked, having his suits commns translate his words into all known speech patterns from Citadel space and the Terminus. After a minute of belting out the same automated question, the aliens seemed unfazed and responded only in their grunting language.

One said something to the guttural agreements of the group. They didn't seem to understand Tarqis, despite the translation software. Curious Parvik opened his omni-tool and looked at the translation in text, the log registered what could only be described as a jumble of human words. English, but also a massive compilation of other words in the human lexicon, things called Spanish, Latin, Mandarin, Urdu, Hindi, Russia, Bantu, something called Esperanto and a myriad of others. In addition, the aliens had also been speaking in their own grunts, growls and roars which the translation couldn't make heads or tails of. These things were just literally throwing out random words for number of languages and mismatching them together. The fact the software of the translator tool even understood that some of the human language was being spoken was surprising, but given the random ordering of words and their phrasing, he suspected that the words being spoken were largely different from their human counterparts.

A voice came that caused a massive chorus of agreement. As Tarquis crested back up to the hole he saw a mass of more than a hundred slouching aliens. They looked to be Turian height, but likely would have stood taller were it not for their poor, slumping posture. All were the same snot green color and were similarly dressed in ragged bits of metal and cloth. Thick tusks protruded from their square shaped jaws and pointed ears stuck up next to their bald heads. Parvik noted through the camera that each one was built like a damn krogan, all were thick with muscle and had a wide frame that suggested their skeletons were similarly sized. All were clutching either some ramshackle ax or a blade, some square shaped pistols were held by the ax wielders. A few had equally pieced together-looking rifles. One particular specimen seemed to stand a head or three above the others and was clutching a large two handed ax that seemed to be smoking, as though exhaust was coming out of it.

The large alien roared, waving his smoking ax towards the Belchick. Parvik couldn't understand its low guttural sounds, but then a familiar roar filled the hanger as the large alien raised its head back. "WAAAGHHH!"

A roaring chorus of "WAAARGH" filled the hanger as the tide of green rushed at the ship, flashes filling the hanger as a rain of bullets filled the air around lieutenant Tarqis.

From the Hand of Captain Josiah Patternock Merriweather von Helvik

My journey to the conference was delayed by half an hour after that accursed murder servitor made an appearance. Leaping out of a vent and dragging an unfortunate member of our Janatorium staff back into the vent with it as it did so. Its mask flashing a disturbingly artificial toothy smile as it dug its claws into the poor man as he vanished from sight. I'll have to remember to speak to Magos Brith about that thing. At the rate we're losing scrubiators and polishers on this deck soon the promenades and deck hatches will be littered with refuse; and the polish I'm so accustomed to will fade away. I'd rather sell my mother than suffer such squalor!

Trudging ahead, careful to not step in the blood with my finest groxskin boots I finally made it to the meeting, fashionably late as I heard it was whispered. It would appear my delay gave me a slight aura of confidence as I sat to converse with the captains of my fleet, I suppose that they were cognizant enough to remember matters and protocols even in our unusual circumstances. We sat around a circular mahogany table, with my bowtied servo skulls floating around with trays of amasec [1]. I then gave them some more time to talk among themselves as we got comfortable, let it never be said that the Von Helviks's can't host grand events, even if it is a late minute affair. As I prepared to speak, Navigator Kessler appeared, and while pale and nervous looking, he at least seemed to be in full control of his faculties and following him was my loyal astropath, Augustus Hoyal, who seemed to be in considerably higher spirits judging by his ear to ear smile.

Taping a goblet I got the attention of the room. With eyes upon me I rose to give a rousing speech of confidence and cooperation. I extolled my fellows first for their everlasting virtues in their wise command, whatever they chose to make of that, I'm sure it flattered the ones who are always flatterable. I then urged them to keep their crews calm as we navigated this seemingly new horizon and that together, if we played our cards right, we could find even greater fortune for ourselves as we plumbed the depths of the frontier. I spoke of the God Emperor's wisdom and light and that even if we were separate from it, his countenance would surely fall on us and keep us safe in its embrace, so long as we kept[2] to the true faith and didn't waver. "Even with us being so far from any watchful eyes, this would be the grandest test of our resolve, the temptation of the man who find's himself in the dark to do as the darkness in his heart wills is the hardest of vices to avoid, but should he do so, his rewards beyond will be ever greater and everlasting."[3] I said to finished the speech. My impromptu homily seemed to hit its mark as the crowed seemed receptive enough.[4]

As I opened the discussion to questions and concerns, Hoyal and Kessler both stood. I was surprised to see them so eager to jointly speak given Kessler's unease with my astropath following a nearly disastrous use of his powers some years prior[5] which left the two no longer on speaking terms.[6] Kessler spoke first, reaffirming what we already knew; the light of the Astronomican was gone from where we were. What he said next though was surprising. With Hoyal reaffirming what he was saying, Kessler explained that the warp around us was calm, not just a lull or relatively placid portion like what occurred on the narrow bands of stable warp traffic in charted space, but rather, the whole of the warp for our portion of the galaxy was flat. The tumultuous currents normally present were simply nonexistent, the shoals covered by the waves of energy were exposed and visible from a great distance, and the cacophony of sights and sounds in the region were gone as well. If the Warp was normally a raging storm, now it was a calmly jostling lake.

Chiming in, Augustus explained further. Normally the warp was full of background noises that made telepathic probing and exploration difficult, but now the noises were hardly present. I was shocked [7], if what the two of them were saying was true [8] then the normal dangers of traveling through the Immaterium weren't in this region of space. Without the rolling waves of psychic energies and dangerous hidden shoals, travel would not only be much safer but even faster than in almost any region of Imperial space. While we'd need to chart this unknown expanse to survive and find our way home, our task had become monumentally more manageable and our situation a lot less bleak. Traveling unimpeded in this strange bubble of calm gave us the flexibility to try and find supplies and a possible channel back to Itano. In addition, without the background noise of the warp, our astropaths could keep in touch with one another without as much risk and each man and woman could send a message out further than before. I could tell this dawned upon the rest of the seated representatives as well judging by their frenetic whispers.

Clearing my throat, I announced our course of action was clear. With the safety of travel in our immediate area secured, the first thing that we needed to do was try and find a strand of light from the Astronomican. While this bubble of space would protect us for the time being, once we moved beyond its embrace we'd need the light of the Emperor to make our way back safely. Secondarily, we needed to explore this bubble of space as well as we could while trying to find the beacon. Once we returned to Imperial space, my next endeavor would be a massive exploration and colonization effort of this bubble of space, and the more information we found before leaving, the better my plans would be. With such easy warp travel available, it would be a trivial matter to move supplies and people around the suns and planets in this region without the normal logistical uncertainties that came with such plans. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had planned to spend hours with my fellows, going over plans and lists of equipment, but with Kessler and Augustus's announcement, I dismissed the meeting early. My people would need to coordinate with their own small councils to make our fleet's next moves as we set out through the stars.

Which brings me to my third objective. In all the excitement, many forgot about the xeno device outside. Once it didn't react to our presence, our attention turned back to survival. Now that we have breathing room, I am curious about this thing. Magos Brith has no clue as to its function[9] but with our first priority being exploration of the bubble, I'll place it on the back burner for the time being. I know of no other trader who might operate this far out[10] so I can feel comfortable leaving it here for now, but I'll be back.

I head to my study now. If exploration and movement is an option I'll need to examine my ships and see which would be best suited for which task.

...

[1] Caralex Vintage 39,888. I'm loath to part with such a classic, but when putting on the airs of diplomacy, sacrifices must be made.

[2] At least in the abstract.

[3] The Parable of the Blind Star Captain. Chapter Sixty Six verse nine.

[4] Our Mechanicus guest remained silent, though my Magos and Explorator assured me that the speech was considered adequate by our guest.

[5] A dull tale, but suffice to say that the perils of the warp caused an accidental rain of blood to fall for several days on the bridge. To took a month of cleaning from our Adeptus Janitorium staff to clean it all.

[6] Which made coordinating fleet actions somewhat cumbersome and difficult as they two used intermediates to talk to one another while on the bridge. After their intermediates began a sordid affair that ended acrimoniously their go-between then began to use their own set of intermediaries to communicate. I could not dismiss them as they were pages from our knightly starfighter families.

[7] Though I make a policy of trying to avoid being so.

[8] While I have little reason to doubt their faculties or abilities, the situation is still quite incredulous.

[9] Though in his defense as of the time of this writing we've only been here a scant few hours, barring differences in the passage of time in this area of space.

[10] McGowan might have but after I arraigned that warp core accident I don't think he'll be emerging from the Immaterium any time soon.

A/N-I went back and edited chapter 1 a little bit, now the Turians don't understand Ork language, I forgot Gothic isn't just English, but rather an amalgamation of various human languages and put through the sausage grinder of thousands of years of history and drift. Next time I'll keep the Lexicanum open more to double check my information.

Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying the story, and if you see any writing errors let me know, I like to improve to make the reading easier for all of you as the story continues.