Chapter 2
Standoff
"These 'creatures' as you call them are people who I would trust with my life. I have fought with these people, bled with them, made friendships and bonds that will never be broken with them and as long as you threaten them you will threaten me and any human on these ships!!!"
Admiral Joseph Halos to Inquisitor Delshon
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Half way across the system, resting on the surface of an asteroid was a small craft; it was sleek and looked more like a work of art than an actual scouting vessel, from the small bridge of the ship a woman sat in the command chair, eyes of pure purple watching the images of the two clusters of ships that were several million kilometres away.
She was an Eldar, one of the oldest races in the galaxy, she stood roughly a head taller than an average human, the curves of a slender figure clearly visible with the body hugging mesh armour she wore, she had pale skin which signified that she had lived most of her life in space and her white hair was done up in a topknot, she had a shuriken pistol holstered on her belt and a power sword which was leaning against her command chair.
Her name was Ishta Taldeer, a Warlock of the Ulthwé Craftworld and she was here because the Farseers of her people had reported visions of an unknown force entering the galaxy, a force that could forever change the future, the Council was annoyingly vague about the important details.
Her fellow Eldar on the cramped bridge were sitting at their designated positions sifting through the records for any information on these wedge shaped warships, so far they had found nothing, but long ranged bio-scans showed that the crews of these vessels were mixed, wherever these people came from their nation had to be similar to the Tau Empire.
Her fingers pressed quickly against the runes of her command chair, magnifying the image of a group of Strike Cruisers leaving the warp a few hundred kilometers behind the Imperium ships, their armoured hulls painted in the colours of the Blood Raven's Chapter.
She would report what she had seen to the Ulthwé Commander and see what he thought on the matter, she knew that although the Space Marines were the most dangerous warriors of the Imperium, certain Chapters like the Blood Raven's and Space Wolves did not employ the same shoot first and ask later ideal that the Imperial Guard and Navy seemed to be built on.
As her fingers danced along the runes of her chairs control panel she kept both eyes on the opponent fleets, she encrypted the transmission to the Eldar Taskforce several times before sending it, if the Imperium became hostile to these people they will be forced to intervene.
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The two fleets had been facing each other for close to three hours, their weapons armed and ready to fire at a moment's notice, their shields set to full power. For the last three hours Halos and Rooseland had been in a series of diplomatic talks, they were going nowhere so Halos had called the only person in the fleet capable of diplomacy; the Jedi Master had been called from his state of meditation and was on his way. At the other end was a man dressed in black armoured robes and held a staff, his face was just as scarred as the Admirals, Rooseland had introduced him as Inquisitor Delshon, the look of this man made Halos wish that the Jedi would hurry up, get here and level the negotiations.
"Once again Admiral" Rooseland repeated for the hundredth time "Power down and surrender, you are hopelessly outnumbered"
"As long as you continue to threaten half my crews with arrest and interrogation because they are not human I will not surrender" Halos returned.
He glanced at the force assembled in front of him, a massive battleship at least eight kilometres long was at the head with at least ten smaller vessels that ranged in size from five hundred metres long to a kilometre, he also saw half a dozen weapon platforms that would match if not overcome a Golan-III in firepower. He was outnumbered and outgunned but his ships were in better condition, several of the opposing warships had smoke billowing out of certain areas from hull breaches and fires.
His ships however were battle ready; the shields and weapons were completely regenerated on all his ships, the fighters had landed, refuelled, rearmed and were just itching to launch for another fight.
"Those creatures are a threat to the Imperium as long as they are within our territories" Inquisitor Delshon replied angrily.
"These 'creatures' as you call them are people who I would trust with my life" Halos replied, the anger now completely clear in his voice "I have fought with these people, bled with them, made friendships and bonds that will never be broken with them and as long as you threaten them you will threaten me and any human on these ships!!!"
The people on his bridge, on every bridge and corridor, mess hall and engine room, weapon battery and hanger bays of his fleet were voicing their agreement for the Admiral.
The hiss of the bridge door opening made Halos smile slightly, the Jedi master had arrived. The man walked into the bridge, two Imperial Stormtroopers entered with him and walked to the side, the Jedi was human, his brown robes seemed to be caught on a non-existent wind as he walked, the entire bridge quietened and watched the Master in awe and respect, his face was hidden in the shadows of his large hood and as he came up beside Halos he raised his hands and lowered his hood showing a man of at least twenty-five with short dark brown hair, pale skin and ice blue eyes, he hooked his hands through his black belt showing the silver cylinder of a lightsabre hilt, he had certainly caught the men at the other sides attention.
"Gentlemen" Halos stated proudly "It is my honour to introduce to you Gabriel Sabbath, A Jedi Master of the Jedi Order, who are the guardians and protectors of the Galactic Alliance"
Gabriel bowed in greeting to the Imperium officers, they didn't even move, just studied him with cold eyes; the Jedi Master didn't even flinch under their gazes.
It was the Inquisitor who spoke first "You will convince your Admiral to surrender and have all xenos prepare for arrest and interrogation"
"That is unacceptable…Inquisitor" Gabriel replied calmly "The only way we are going to reach an agreement is if you withdraw your threats of surrender and of arrest and interrogation"
"What!?" Delshon hissed.
"Furthermore if you wish to fight us may I suggest you look at your fleet first" Gabriel pointed out calmly "They are weakened by the battle against the Chaos fleet that we were fighting earlier while our fleet is practically unharmed, only your battleship would pose much of a threat and I sense that we are out of range of your weapon platforms, our fighters would tear you apart" Halos stopped himself from grinning ear to ear at the Jedi's concealed threat "I would rather we settled this peacefully and if you wish we will leave your territories and find help elsewhere"
"Admiral" one of the comm. Officers shouted "We have several new vessels appearing…three ships, roughly a kilometre and a half long!"
"That would be the Space Marines we sent for" Delshon said smugly "Surrender or we will tear you're vessels apart and salvage the technology you possess"
"You think three more ships scare me Inquisitor?" Halos replied, his voice taking on the threatening, confident tone that Imperial officers were famous for "That just means that the playing field is even, our fighters are still superior to yours!"
"Oh Admiral, it is only because you saved us that I don't give the order to destroy you right now" Delshon said "But if you insist…Admiral Rooseland, aim for their engines, cripple them and let the Space Marines finish the job!"
The images flickered and vanished, Halos spun to his bridge crew and ordered the shields up, they came on line just as the first long range lance and plasma beams hit.
"Return fire" Halos ordered "Long range Turbolaser and Ion cannons only…turn the fleet around and prepare for hyperspace"
"Not a good idea Admiral" Florn said "If this is unexplored space then we have no coordinates to jump too, we'd probably end up in a black hole or a sun"
Halos cursed in Hutteze as another wave of lance fire smacked into the bridge shield, the reds and blues of turbolaser and ion fire lanced out in response to the Imperiums attack.
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Typical - Ishta thought as the Imperium vessels opened fire – Trust the Imperium to stab someone in the back.
"Send this to Commander Sersa" she ordered "The worst scenario has come to be"
As her communications officer made contact Ishta noticed that the Space Marine reinforcements were not joining the battle, she pondered on why because usually the Space Marines would lead an assault. Only one idea came to her mind, they didn't agree with the Navies attack.
"My Lady" Her comm. Officer spoke "Commander Sersa is on the way!"
"Our job here is finished then" she said "Take us out and to the rendezvous point!"
Ishta relaxed as the scout hummed to life, docking hooks detached from the asteroids surface with a mechanical clang and the little craft sped away from its perch and jumped into the warp as quietly as it came.
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While the Imperium fleet was bombarding the Alliance Inquisitor Delshon was in another argument with the leader of the Space Marine reinforcements "This is treason Angelus!!!"
The image of Brother-Captain Angelus starred venomously at the Inquisitor "They save your worthless neck and you would rather destroy them than thank them, my men will not join in on your pathetic attempt to gain glory"
"Admiral, we have ships coming in"
"Chaos?"
"No sir it's…Eldar!"
Delshon turned around as the main screen lit up showing the Eldar vessels that were jumping out of the warp, the sleek craft were a sight to behold, long with dragon like wings near the back, their hulls were covered with gun batteries and the speed of the vessels should have been impossible, if the taskforce didn't look impressive enough replicas of the vessels appeared out of nowhere making the fleet look three times bigger than it really was.
Rooseland growled angrily "They're using holofields to protect their ships"
Several Imperium Destroyers broke off and fired upon the Eldar ships, but the lance and plasma weapons phased through the decoys, the Eldar though opened fire with their lance batteries scoring several hits on the ships trying to intercept them.
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"Admiral the new ships are hailing us" a comm. Officer yelled.
Halos and Sabbath sighed wearily before telling them to patch it through, the figure that appeared was a humanoid, and its slender form was encased in black and white armour with a strange gun strapped to his hip and some sort of lance held in his armour gloved right hand, when he spoke the voice sounded musical.
"I am Commander Sersa of the Eldar" he said "We are sending coordinates for a rendezvous, whether you wish to meet with us or not is entirely up to you"
"What do you think Admiral?" Sabbath asked.
Halos glanced at the Jedi Master before saying "Do we have a choice, all ships turn to the given course and jump!"
The Alliance warships turned in unison, firing lances of turbolaser and ion fire at the Imperium ships as they went, the Eldar craft got into formation around them and together the two fleets jumped away from the Imperium force.
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On the bridge of the Imperium Strike Cruiser Emperor's Grace Brother-Captain Angelus glared at the place were the Alliance was and silently cursed the Inquisitor for firing at the ships before he could contact them, he was under strict orders from the Fabricator General, one of the High Lords of Terra to make contact with these vessels on friendly terms.
The High Lord had sensed a large output of psychic energy in the warp and had Angelus' forces investigate the matter, now this Inquisitor would live the rest of his life in disgrace, he may not live at all.
What do you think of that? I hope I got the Imperium right. In the next chapter the Alliance and Eldar will open negotiations with each other. May be a bit difficult, what with the Eldar's uneasiness to humans and all, how will these negotiations go, just wait and see. Stay tuned for the next chapter, should be an interesting challenge. Oh and don't forget to review.