Chapter 6
Allies and Enemies
"Magi this technology could be the Imperiums salvation. Their faster than light travel, their galaxy-wide communications systems among other things would give us the edge against our enemies!"
Tech-Priest Rune
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The Retribution-Class Battleship was an impressive sight, named the Emperors Fire, at twelve kilometres from bow to stern; its port and starboard sides were covered with row upon row of powerful weapon batteries, by just looking at this behemoth Halos knew that it could match if not overcome an Executer-class Star Dreadnought in a contest of pure firepower.
As his Lambda-class Shuttle flew gracefully towards the Imperium Battleship Halos glanced at his other passengers, Tech-Priest Rune sat comfortably in the chairs answering the questions of Halos Chief Engineer, a human named Jonas Fern who was a big, tough individual, his muscles were lean saying that they were made through use instead of show and he was from Correlia adding that classic attitude that people like Han Solo and Wedge Antilles made famous.
His shuttle glided through an opening that an old Dreadnought Cruiser could fit through and landed silently in its landing zone, the ramp descended and Rune led the way, Halos and Fern followed with a squad of eight stormtroopers in tow, the Admiral had chosen not to use an Alliance Honour Guard unit because each squad had at least one alien member, that person would be put at serious risk because of the Imperium's distrust of non-humans.
The Alliance entourage followed Rune to a group of Imperium officers, at the lead was a man dressed in the armour of the Adeptus Mechanicus with a power sword sheathed, his face had eye implants and several cables were attached to his neck that ran down into his armour.
"Admiral Halos, I am Magi Durin of the Adeptus Mechanicus, if you will follow me"
Halos and his entire entourage followed the Magi through the ship and finally entered a briefing room that was three times the size of the one on the Vigilance.
As everyone took their seats Durin turned to Rune "Is the technology acceptable Tech-Priest?"
"It is acceptable Magi" Rune replied evenly.
"Very good" Durin said before turning to Halos "Admiral I and my ship have been assigned as you and your people's protector and I hope that although we have had a bad beginning that we can start afresh"
"I hope so too Magi" Halos said "And I think there is much that we can learn from each other"
"Agreed" Durin said "Let us begin this new friendship with this" the Magi took out a datachip and inserted it into the table, a holographic image appeared of an Imperial Star Destroyer "This is an upgraded version of one of your warships, the front turbolaser batteries have been replaced by lance batteries, we have doubled its small armaments with ten extra plasma cannons and we have also added an extra layer of adamantium to make it more durable to return fire…with your permission we can test this design on one of your ships"
"I will submit the request to my captains" Halos replied not letting the surprise show in his voice.
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"I have read your report thoroughly Tech-Priest" The Magi said as he settled into his chair "But from your point of view why would the Alliance technology be so useful to us?"
"Well first of is their method of faster than light travel" Rune began "As you know it would take our ships years to get from one side of the galaxy to the other but with the Alliances hyperdrive it would take simply weeks"
That gained the Magi's attention "Are you serious?"
"Very" Rune replied "It is considerably safer than warp travel because the warp doesn't have much influence, although it is still a danger it has greatly decreased. It is also much more precise, with warp travel we can only go as far as the outskirts of a system and have to go the rest by impulse but with hyperdrive we can enter the system to just outside of the gravity well of a planet"
The Magi remained silent; with this new method Imperium fleets could get to besieged worlds quickly and precisely, and in greater numbers, Crusade fleets could be gathered in weeks instead of years and strike at the enemy without much warning.
"Magi this technology could be the Imperiums salvation" Rune exclaimed passionately "Their faster than light travel, their galaxy-wide communications systems among other things would give us the edge against our enemies!"
Magi Durin sighed before responding "I have received word from Mars, the Inquisition is sending one of its agents to investigate the Alliances vessels"
"They'll never agree to it" Rune said, his enthusiasm crushed "After their last run in with an Inquisitor"
"Indeed"
"Besides with the data we have sent them they should be satisfied with our results"
"If there is one thing I have learned about the Inquisition in my long life it's that they are never satisfied with reports until one of their own investigates…my only hope is that they don't send a Purist"
"Are you going to inform the Alliance?" Rune asked.
"Of course" the Magi said "They would need to prepare for the Inquisitors arrival, a warning will also have to be sent to their Psyker…I have reliable intelligence that this Inquisitor was once a member of the Witch Hunters"
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A week later a small taskforce of six Star Destroyers and one Retribution Battleship moved out to the fringes of the Helios system, once they were out of range of the furthest line of orbital defence platforms the Emperors Fire broke away from the Alliance fleet and set up a position ahead of them.
"We are now going to begin the weapons trials" Durin announced "What we are going to do is have your craft open fire on us and see how it affects our shields, we will do the same to your ships"
"I understand Magi" Halos replied before turning to Florn "Get me contact with Severi"
A few moments later the image of Severi appeared on the holo-screen, the female Chiss wore her grey Captains uniform with her long raven black hair done up in a bun "Are you ready Captain?"
"We are ready Admiral" Severi said.
"Very well Captain, fire a concentrated five second barrage on the Emperors Fire"
The Spirit of Ithor moved forward from the fleet and opened fire with her front weapon batteries, long lances of green and red turbolaser fire smashed into the shields of the Emperors Fire causing them to ripple, as ordered the barrage continued for five seconds before the Star Destroyer ceased.
"How was that Magi?" Halos asked.
"Very informative Admiral" Magi Durin replied "Your weapons managed to shave 15 off our shields, we now know that our lance batteries are more powerful than your turbolaser batteries but yours have better range and accuracy"
"I think it's your turn" Halos replied before turning to Severi "Shields up Severi"
The frontal batteries of the Emperors Fire opened up spewing long, thick lances of energy towards the Spirit, the entire ship seemed to shake as the powerful beams of light smashed into the shields, the barrage lasted for five seconds before it ceased.
"Severi, status" Halos ordered but no answer came "Captain Severi, status!"
The holo-screen flickered back to life showing the Chiss Captain, a small trickle of blood flowed from the side of her head, her hair burst from its bun and now hung messily around her head "Sorry sir, that blast knocked the wind out of us…our shields are down to 20, front weapon systems have shorted out, the Impulse engines are damaged and the hull plating has been badly scorched, but she's holding"
"Back away Captain, get behind our line" Halos ordered before the Magi's image reappeared "I think you overdid it Magi, I thought you said you were only using your front batteries"
"We were captain" Durin informed dryly.
"Well we didn't get hit by anything like that when we fought the Chaos fleet at Magos"
"You took them by surprise Admiral" Durin pointed out "Their weapons and shields were most likely depleted when you arrived…if you had fought them head on you might have been wiped out"
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It was another week before the Adeptus Mechanicus and Alliance forces meet outside the system again, Halos glanced out at the Vengeance and the Spirit of Ithor, both ships had been heavily modified by the Mechanicus and were almost unrecognisable, their hulls were now a dark grey instead of white, the frontal Turbolaser batteries had been removed and replaced by Lance batteries while the back had been relocated and raised to the new adamantium armoured layer, ten new plasma cannons had been added among the laser and ion cannons already present. The Emperors Fire had also been modified, its warp drive had been replaced by a hyperdrive engine, tractor beams had been installed at the front of the ship along with proton torpedo tubes.
This was the first test of the Emperors Fires hyperdrive, it was to be accompanied by the modified Star Destroyers Vengeance, Spirit of Ithor and Vigilance who were also going to test their newly modified shielding against the small presence that the warp had on hyperspace.
"We are going to the Scorpios System Admiral" Durin informed "It is a small colony world about twelve light-years from here, a perfect place to test new technologies"
Halos and Sabbath exchanged looks, he had not seen the Jedi Master in almost two weeks, stuck in his quarters deep in meditation as Jedi are famous for doing.
"Then let the test begin" Durin said and the ships vanished into hyperspace.
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A few hours later the seven warships reappeared from hyperspace into the Scorpios System, a fairly average Star System consisting of a young sun and five planets, only one was capable of supporting life, called Scorpios it was a planet covered by mountains and plains, its settlements were mostly agricultural farms with a small capital city called Scorpios City, the entire planets population was two million people, of that two thirds of them lived in the city.
In orbit around the planet was a space station, bristling with weapon emplacements and docked ships, scattered around the planet were defensive platforms, each one covered with Lance batteries, plasma missile launchers and dozens of smaller anti-fighter laser cannons.
The battleship shuddered slightly as it returned to real space and the Magi turned to his second in command "That was the most comfortable journey I've ever been on, what's the status of the hyperdrive?"
"Conduits B and E have overheated sir but besides that it is working perfectly"
"Our position?"
"Exactly were we wanted to be Magi"
The Magi managed a rare smile "I suppose that means that the test has been a success…contact Admiral Halos"
Halos' image appeared in front of the Magi "Admiral the test has been a complete success however we will need to dock with the systems space station and make modifications to a few of the hyperdrives systems"
"Understood Magi" Halos replied "We will settle in and wait for you"
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From the outer reaches of the system a fleet of nightmarish warships hovered silently, their hulls coloured pitch black with blade and spine like protrusions sticking out, along each of the warships hulls were thousands of trophies that ranged from pieces of enemy vessels and vehicles to body parts of slain foes.
Within the lead ship it was dark, the flickering lights of consoles and systems the only source of light within the confines of the bridge. Sitting on the command chair was the shadowed form of a nightmarish humanoid, his eyes shining a gleaming blood red in the low light, he raised a pale hand, pointing towards the system and through a venomous smile hissed these words "Begin"
The fleet of warships surged forward, their forms vanishing as they began to move, they soared past the perimeter defences of the human world without the defenders being aware of it, the man gave a low hiss before slowly rising from his command chair, his fleet was right beside the space station now, the small defence force of major warships were all docked along with a Retribution Battleship, this was the perfect time.
"Deactivate the Shadow Fields and open fire!"
In perfect unison his warships decloaked and opened fire, long lances of dark red light collided with the unknowing space station causing great explosions and blowing off bulkheads, several warships vanished in the blooms of fire as others, unmanned, their docking hooks snapping under the pressure and heat began drifting away, only the battleship survived the initial bombardment.
"Your orders Archon Deathstrike?" his second hissed.
The Archon sneered at the planet, now practically undefended lay out in front of them "Launch landing craft…I want slaves for our torture chambers!"
His second smiled, the flash of an explosion showing a man with pale skin, covered in blue veins, his smile was that of needle sharp teeth "Yes Archon"
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The sudden blaring of alarms awoke Gabriel from his sleep, he jumped out of his bed, fully dressed in his Jedi robes and grabbing his lightsabre hilt ran along the corridors of the Vigilance, all around him crew and soldiers ran to their battle stations preparing for the worst, as he entered the turbo-lift that transported him to the bridge.
Before the lift reached the bridge he raised his hood and wrapped his robes around himself, he reached out into the force and immediately withdrew contact, something was out there, something that's evil and hunger for pain and death rivalled that of anything he had ever encountered.
He entered the bridge and walked quickly towards the ramp were Halos and Florn were "What is wrong? I felt a great disturbance"
"An unknown fleet of warships appeared out of nowhere and attacked the space station, all but the Emperors Fire has been destroyed and she may not last much longer"
As Gabriel came up beside them he saw three small Frigate sized warships speed past them towards the area of the battle, a Destroyer sized ship followed behind them.
"All hands battle stations" Halos yelled "Power up the weapon emplacements, raise the shields, full impulse speed!!!"
Well what do you think of that, in the next chapter the battle will begin, the Alliance and Mechanicus will be fighting for their survival as the Dark Eldar launch their raid on the planet and finally the Jedi will be placed into a major roll, anything you find wrong with it let me know…until then May the Force Guide You and review, review...review!