"Empress?" I questioned as the familiar ghost of Virgil gushed at Jiminy as he buzzed nearby. Hearing my voice, Jiminy's ruby head swiveled toward me, his antennae twitching.
It was a small amount of time before the metal mantis responded. "Do excuse my newly reformed compatriot, Scion. He, well, I think he is somewhat confused on his... condition."
"What are you talking about, friend? I'm fine. This isn't my first projection," Virgil quipped. "Stop speaking through that drone and just talk to me directly."
"Virgil, I'm going to need you to be quiet for a little bit. You are experiencing confusion. Just try to relax. I'll be right with you."
The gilded shade didn't seem to understand, but nodded in the affirmative. Holding his hands behind his back, Virgil began to float aimlessly about the bridge, his expression displaying deep thought. Behind him, Wolfie happily approached me and stood ahead of me, his tail wagging in excitement at all the wildness around him. Stay next to me, boy. Stay, I psychically instructed him. Don't go anywhere, and don't bark. I have to make sense of all this. The astral hound responded by walking to the right of my throne, and sat down attentively.
Taking a deep breath, I began to take in the transformation the ship had undergone.
The gold on the bridge was no longer a simple buffed metal, but now seemed to shine with an inner light, giving the atmosphere an incredibly powerful feel. My energy felt amplified simply by being here, stronger than I would normally be. Motes of light floated like electric fireflies on ethereal currents that caressed my skin, causing goosebumps to alight. This place felt unreal. The amount of power I now felt both around and through me was staggering. Through the throne, I felt the Divine Retribution initializing long dead systems, from the previously dead view screens in living quarters, to the cooking appliances, to the steam sauna. I was extra grateful when I felt the living gold begin to reconfigure itself under each wing into four cannons (two for each wing). We were now no longer defenseless! Ahead of me, the large, holographic screens flickered to life like a computer monitor booting up, static dancing across the surface of the air until it fixated into not one, but three large screens each as tall as a small movie theatre ahead of each throne. Each sculpted itself into a nearly opaque star map of the local area before dimming to translucence once again. The screen ahead of the leftmost throne buzzed and vanished, leaving only the projections ahead of Alberich and I. Below, I could feel a quake. Necrons...
An unbidden image flashed in my mind's eye. Far beneath, a gigantic, irregularly shaped crescent ship staggered to life, before failing, again and again. It was much larger than the Divine Retribution. Through my magnified senses, I realized that it had intended to break through the surface of the planet directly below us, but found itself without enough power to do so. It was missing too many essential energy cells. Not only that, other larger vessels below found themselves bereft of enough energy to function properly! This catastrophic failure actually prevented this entire regional contingent of Necron ships from rising. Frantic orders were being given from a singular newly woken general to find a way topside, no matter what, which resulted in the primitive display of individual Necron warriors teleporting to the surface and promptly getting smashed flat by giant gold eagle talons. Whoops, sorry about your missing energy crystal, guys! Seems you needed that!
Escaping from the earth wasn't a problem for the rest of the aliens on the planet. Thieves had only repeatedly targeted the Tomb directly below us, leaving others intact. Different Tombs were now able to send some of their vanguard ships above, but until the Nome King could reform himself, coordination between his military forces was poor and confused. He had invested too much control of his own people within himself and only a handful of his direct subordinates, so when Trazyn stole his body, their entire army found itself temporarily decapitated.
I came to awareness again while laughing at the scene in my mind. These Necrons had rolled a critical failure in waking their own Tomb World. It didn't make them safe to be around, but it did give us a little extra time, thank goodness. Feeling somewhat relieved, I continued taking stock of my present situation.
To my right, Alberich had his head down, and a line of drool fell from his beak. Intuitively, I now knew that the ship had "initialized" him as a sort of backup copilot on the rightmost throne. Why this hadn't worked before confused me, but I was happy that he hadn't been eaten. Having a copilot was probably a good idea; someone else to share the burden of the soul drain was a welcome development.
As I watched the Tzaangor, his head wearily pulled up and squinted at me. Immediately, I noticed that his eyes had changed. While not entirely metallic like mine, Alberich's irises were now ringed with gold, giving his already keen blue grey gaze an extra edge of intimidation. That wasn't the only thing that had changed. On his bare upper left shoulder, I noticed a strange mark that faintly shimmered as he struggled, almost as if it wasn't really there. I hadn't seen it before on him, so I studied it as the beastman attempted to pull himself back to full consciousness.
It was an image of an eye ringed with flames, and I realized that I actually recognized it from the lore. That was Tzeentch's mark! When did he get that? Had he always had that?
"What happened to me, Erika? What happened?" Alberich said miserably as I studied him, his goatlike ears lowered in fear. "I... I can sense the ship now. It's alive! It's alive! And you are..."
The Tzaangor turned to me, and his expression shifted to that of astonishment. He said nothing.
My eyes were still on his Chaos mark. I didn't like this development one bit. Tzeentch had put a brand on someone very close to me. Blindly trusting Tzeentch enough to receive a mark like that was dangerous, but I could not afford to worry about that right now. I answered the beastman's question with, "You're apparently my copilot now, Alberich," I said. "Buckle up, buckaroo."
Alberich shook his head like a dog, snapping himself aware again. "But... why?" he asked, observing the new bright gold bridge. "What happened? What is this all? What...?"
"I'm guessing Null plugged the new battery in," I replied. I turned back to the main holographic screen before me, and gripped the throne's armrests.
Behind the screen, I could tell that Lian was still shielding his eyes from the new incredible brightness around us. The ship was still adjusting and reigniting. Another quick mental image pulled from below saw Null with his servitors. The group watched the swirling light of the battery as a translucent barrier was lowered down around it, surrounding it in a protective shield. I could also spy a handful of glass coffin-like structures laying at a 45 degree angle against the walls of this room. All were empty with the exception of one, which contained a small shadowed figure the size of a little girl.
Tailsn lay dead, her body already partially mummified by the Divine Retribution's voracious hunger. She had trusted me to save her, and this is how she ended up.
Aside from Tailsn's corpse, I could tell that Null appeared absolutely ecstatic. The tech-priest fell to his knees, and prostrated himself in front of the battery as it glowed, exulting praises to the Omnissiah. After his prayers, he stood up, and with a motion of his hand, a screen appeared in front of him beside the battery on a pedestal.
As before, a small individual screen opened up beside my throne, and I physically beheld the engine room again. The emerald battery was happily glowing green in the background, and Null's eyes were pink with cheer. The tech-priest was overjoyed.
"You may have noticed that the battery has been accepted! Energy moves through the ship again!" the tech-priest proclaimed joyfully. His animated eyes studied me through the screen. "You shine! You glow! A halo! How glorious!"
"Archmagos Nemo?" Virgil had heard the voice of Null again, and walked behind me to get a good view of the screen. "Tell me what is happening, archmagos? I...I don't feel well. My hallucinations persist. My heart hurts; it beats irregularly. Do hurry with the injection! I want to tell you everything I have seen."
Null studied Virgil, and I saw his eyes search his friend's ghostly form. Through his animated eyes, the tech-priest's expression shifted from happiness to a sort of bittersweet resolution. The tech-priest composed himself before speaking. "Listen, stay where you are, Virgil. Stay there and try to relax, and please keep quiet. I will be there when I can be. There is an emergency around you. All will be explained later, but in the meantime, do not get in the way of the living Traveler sitting on the throne. You are onboard the Divine Retribution. We got inside! You are currently aboard the bridge!"
"The Great Eagle? You know its name?" Virgil asked happily. He then began to study me, as if seeing me again for the first time. "Oh yes, I remember you! I was right! The one from my dreams! I saw you in my projections! Wait, you... you now sit upon the Golden Throne of Terra? Am I on Terra? Has a new age dawned already? Do I see now into the bright destiny of humanity?"
"Well," I struggled to find a way to respond to the unbalanced ghost. "Just try to settle down for now, buddy. Do what the archmagos said. Just try to relax," I advised Virgil. Poor guy didn't know he was dead.
"Of course, my God-Empress. I apologize for my strangeness and insubordination. I-I believe that I am projecting myself into your glorious future. I am at your command whenever you wish." Virgil bowed heavily and stepped away, wandering ahead of me. This crazy ghost had it in his head that I was an "Empress" now after the ship had apparently regurgitated him. It didn't even appear that he knew that any time had passed since I had seen him die.
"What is all of this? What is this?" I heard Lian cry out as he finally composed himself enough to start talking. He still stood behind the translucent holographic screen. From his silhouette, I watched him rapidly turn, frantically trying to understand what had happened. He began to blindly walk ahead through the translucent screen to stand before me. All traces of his reactionary anger had melted away, and he stood as if mesmerized, his eyes filled with wonder and his mouth agape.
Lian's eyes then found me again. He stopped as he stood directly before me, looking me right in the eye. He placed an armored hand over his mouth in shock. "Throne..." he whispered, all the color in his pale face leaving him. He did not move.
Virgil's random wandering brought him near where Lian gaped, stepping close to him before suddenly noticing that he was there. "Pardon me, astartes lord. I did not see you. When did you get here? Are you a representative from Fort Pykman? I was not told that we were having visitors. My name is Virgil Allegrii, chief astropath directly serving under Ogun Nemo. Welcome to our outpost!" The reflection of the ancient spirit politely said, definitely confused. Lian still didn't even seem to notice the astropath, and stood motionless before me. Virgil bowed and said, "I have spoken out of turn, and I do apologize. Forgive my strange behaviors!"
"Virgil," I said, my voice careful and soft. The ghost's watery eyes fixed to me again as he wore a smile. "Please, just stand aside. I command you to relax. I have to, uh, fight the enemies of mankind."
"Oh yes, of course, my Empress!" Virgil bowed, and then floated aimlessly away.
Lian's eyes followed Virgil as he wandered off, his expression still frozen in awe. The Fallen looked at me again. Before I could tell Lian to get out of the way of the holographic screen so I could start plotting a course off this planet, he fell heavily to his knees before me with a loud "thunk". I saw him take the gauze wrapped weapon from behind his back, unwrap it in shaking fingers. He unsheathed the blade from its scabbard, and held the sword parallel to the floor in a gesture of display, as if offering fealty to me. He still said nothing, bowed his head, and stared low into eternity, trembling.
The sword was the same massive, space-marine-sized greatsword I had seen on display in Hunter's Repose. The blade itself was easily taller than I was, and beautifully wrought with a finely embellished hilt topped with a pommel that depicted some kind of roaring beast. I thought that I had seen Trazyn steal it, but apparently I had been mistaken. Maybe they had more than one of these blades?
The blade appeared to be a power sword that glowed with a faint pale light. Strange runes lined its blade and pommel, and it was very catching to the eye in its lethal beauty. Dark Angels, Fallen Dark Angels, and space marines in general had a fetish for cool magic swords, so I deduced that this was some sort of blessed weapon that was important to his (now dead) band of brothers. A sacred chapter relic, perhaps. I hoped that this meant that he was indeed pledging fealty to me, and would no longer be dangerous to us.
"Forgive me," Lian choked, his eyes not rising. "Forgive me, for I did not know," he almost whimpered in a voice way too small to originate from such a large, powerful individual.
I decided to lean into it a little bit, and willed my voice to project outward, through both myself and the ship. I didn't want this wild Lion getting aggressive against me again. "What do you offer me?" I asked the kneeling Fallen Dark Angel.
"My fealty to you. Forgive the trespasses I have committed. I didn't... I didn't know..." the marine trailed off. "I know now."
"Do you promise not to kill anyone here, even if you have your own ideas on what looks heretical or not?"
Lian nodded energetically. "Yes. Yes, of course. My sword to you, my-"
I was grateful when Null interrupted from the engine room. This exchange was getting weird and upsetting.
"Pardon me Scion, but we need to go. The systems of the Divine Retribution are all nearly back online. Get out of here as fast as you can!" he said as another quake reminded us that the Necrons, while slowed down, were still a threat. Lian remained motionless, still kneeling and offering his sword.
"Divine Retribution," I called out. This time, I felt all the ship's systems "point" at me, ready to answer my commands. "Are we able to leave the planet yet?"
"15.3 minutes of initialization remaining until full operations restored. Stand by, reconstructing lascannons. Reconstructing plasma torpedoes. Reconstructing heavy void shields. Reconstructing scything talons. Reconstructing bladed beak..." It rattled off a list of different functions.
That all sounded really awesome, I thought with excitement. That made it sound like this ship could actually go into physical combat with another ship and rip it open like a squirrel! I wondered what else it could do. As my eyes settled on Alberich's glaive, laying on the floor ahead of him as he dry heaved on his throne, my memory was summoned back to the warnings the daemon weapon had given to me about being "watched".
"Divine Retribution, do you have, uh, long range scanners?" Did this ship understand lingo from Star Trek?
"Affirmative, long range scanners now online." The screen ahead of me became the large, partially three dimensional map of the Kolch system I had seen before when mapping the jump to Kolch.
Lian was still in the way as he kneeled with his offered sword, head down. "Lian, stand up and get out of the way. I need to see the map."
The Fallen stood, but kept his eyes down. He placed the large blade within the scabbard on his back again, and picked up the gauze wrapping that had fallen on the floor. The emotions bleeding off of him were almost as bright and as strong as the gold on this bridge. He definitely no longer registered to me as a threat. The Fallen walked to my left and behind me, watching the system map, and mutely overwhelmed. As he passed, Wolfie softly growled beside me at my feet. Stop it, I admonished the astral hound. I know you don't like him, but try to get along. The black Warp dog responded with a short whimper and a yawn.
Okay, time to check out who was in the neighborhood. "Divine Retribution, scan to see if anyone is in the area watching us. Any other vessels in the local system?"
Two heartbeats passed before the ship said, "Affirmative," and, to my dismay, five other icons in various places appeared in the system map, with one directly adjacent to Kolch. Another lurked behind one of Kolch's moons, and three more stood further away, quietly loitering near one of the outer planets. "Five other space faring vessels in system."
"I feel sick. My eyes sting," Alberich said to my right. "I can't get up."
"Let me handle this," I replied, mentally directing the gaze of the Divine Retribution on the first icon, the one that was very close to us.
The Divine Retribution's attention "looked" upwards. Before the star map, a three-dimensional model of a spaceship began to coalesce from holographic strands of light. It was a smaller craft than ours with short silver fins, and it had a pointed bow like a fat arrowhead. Its unadorned silver black hull gave the impression that it was made for both speed and stealth. Luckily, it didn't seem to have any spikes, tentacles, or eight-pointed stars, but I also didn't see any Imperial regalia. Overall, it wasn't very remarkable, and soon, a notation under it was visible.
Vessel craft: Human
Alignment: undetermined
Size: 31m length, 12m width, 12m depth
Estimated Crew: 9, mixed
Type: reconnaissance, scout
Armed: yes
Warp Capable: yes
Behind me, Lian snapped to awareness. He pointed over my shoulder at the hologram before me. "I know this vessel! That's the Ebon Hare! I'd recognize its bow anywhere. This is a fast craft that stalks the Ghoul Stars! They are a crew of dishonorable mercenaries hired by our enemies who are too cowardly to venture out into the wilds. We thought that we had evaded them months ago to the south. They have few weapons but are very maneuverable, having survived numerous skirmishes, both in realspace and the Warp. They will flee if they know they have been spotted, and like trained dogs, they will run back to their masters for payment!"
"So, these guys can't hurt us, but they're bad news?" I asked.
"I'm not sure what 'bad news' you are referring to but they are a menace, having no loyalty to any one faction. They have been known to sell their information to many parties, including the Inquisition, and to the others looking to hunt my brothers. If they know that you can see them, they will run, and you will be hunted by the same people who hunt us! It is highly unlikely that you can outrun them. We have tried, and failed. They may be here because of my hunting party. My deepest apologies."
Okay, understood. We needed to run these guys down and blow them up before they ran off and told people about us, I thought quickly. I tried not to think about the prospect of killing everyone on that ship to save ourselves. Could we reason with them? Did they know we were scanning them? The Ebon Hare appeared as if it was flying in a lazy circle, cruising far above us in space. I noticed that as Lian confirmed the name of the ship, the hologram labeled itself Ebon Hare. At least it didn't look like it was going anywhere right now.
My attention requested the second icon, which hid in shadow behind one of Kolch's moons. Ahead of me, I saw the new holographic representation begin to form. It quickly built itself into a broad crescent, easily distinctive in its shape. My intuition told me that I had met the owner of this vessel.
Vessel craft: Necron
Alignment: Necron
Size 97m length, 133m width, 20m depth
Estimated Crew: 50, mixed
Type: VIP transport, diplomacy
Armed: yes
Warp Capable: other
Before I could be worried, I watched as the ship's icon began to move, and it immediately vanished from view with a flash of green light. Thanks for the help. See you around, Necron time wizard.
I had to zoom out on the space map to effectively see the other three ships, which were all clustered together. These three icons lurked around the orbit of one of the outer planets partially hidden behind the rings of a blue gas giant. The ships that began to form in a holographic model before me were strange, sleek things of some kind of alien make, entirely unfamiliar to me. Their graceful hulls were blue green and psychically luminous. Colorful jewels decorated their avian shapes like royal space-faring tropical birds. I found that I had to push the Divine Retribution in order to see these mysterious crafts in their entirety. When I finally saw them (the three were identical), my mind's eye burned with the image of a stern, almost gaunt male face. The man was grey-eyed, fair-skinned, and wore a silvery diadem of knotted metal on his head. His pointed ears peered out from his long dark hair, and I felt him recoil in surprise after I was able to pinpoint his location as the leader of this small band.
Aeldari? Fuck, now these assholes were getting involved! The Divine Retribution confirmed my impression:
Vessel crafts: Aeldari x 3
Alignment: Exodite, Craftworld, unknown craftworld, other
Size: 22m length, 18m width, 12m depth (irregular)
Estimated Crew: each vessel, 5, mixed. Warning! Presence of high potency psyker(s) detected!
Type: reconnaissance, scout
Armed: yes
Warp Capable: yes
Unexpectedly, I sensed the group of Aeldari turn and actually "look" at me. I felt three distinct individuals psychically directing their senses, demanding to know who (and what) I was. I could sense outraged curiosity colored with disbelief. I even felt an echo of a sentence said by one of them whisper through my mind.
We have been seen! I felt the one I had caught explain in surprise. Seeing him again, his identity then echoed through my senses.
...Farseer... ...Elder of Quilan...
Oh no. Really?
FUCK. OFF!I mentally snapped at the Farseer as he continued to watch me. This caused him to break contact with a pained flinch.
I saw Lian point again to another section on the map as my attention was diverted by the Aeldari ships. The Ebon Hare had stopped circling, and had begun to turn around.
The Aeldari ships had not moved, and were still prodding invasively at me. Oh, go away. Mind your own business, stupid elves! I've got enough on my plate here!
"Divine Retribution, void shields up! Parson shield up, but don't go to Warp yet," I angrily said, feeling the ship once again grip me in order to fuel the Warp shield. This time, I felt Alberich flinch as he was also gripped. A low whine escaped his beak. Maybe shields would stop their spying? I felt the Aeldari ships recoil, but they did not move. They persisted. The Ebon Hare was speeding up, and pointed away from this Kolch's sun. Catching that mercenary ship was the priority, I decided. If we didn't catch him, he would tell all his little friends about us. I was definitely terrified of the Inquisition discovering that we existed, so I wanted no part of that. Getting Black Ship treatment or locked in a cell under the Imperial Palace forever was not part of my long-term goals.
"You ready to lift off yet, Divine Retribution? You got your weapons ready?" I asked tensely. I was beginning to breathe heavily with nervous adrenaline. No. I was not going to risk these people telling the Imperium about me. No more people coming after me, and no more assassination attempts. No, no more. If it was them or me, I would stop them first. I steeled myself.
"Scion, what are you doing?" I heard Null ask through the small screen. He sounded worried. I ignored him.
"90% spaceworthy. Capable of flight and Warp flight. Plasma torpedoes online, lascannons at 80% reconstruction."
"Good enough for me! Lets go get them! Lift off, and go after the Ebon Hare. Rabbit season is on!"