Perhaps she had counted her blessings a bit too soon…
As it turned out, the calculations that the original crew had put into the Navigation Unit before the blind-jump had been slightly off, or perhaps the Eye's shifting threw her initial jump off course by a few degrees. Either way, Hathor had finally arrived at her destination…
The only problem was that it was the wrong planet…
She had originally planned to head to one of the core feudal worlds in the Calixis Sector, the coordinates of which she had remembered from one of her meetings with her sister Guilliman.
Juno was always one to memorize every detail of anything that was put in front of her, and that seemingly included the exact coordinates of several core worlds in several star sectors. She really needed a hobby... Hathor would often quip.
Her plan was that once she arrived she would lay low for a while and try to think of her next move… maybe try to make contact with any Imperial presence on the planet and attempt to link up with high command… if she wasn't shot on sight first. It wasn't a full-proof plan, but she was on short notice so she didn't really have time for any of her intricate plans.
In reality the planet she arrived at was likely light-years away from any of the core worlds. It was a barren, dead rock that looked like it had seen its fair share of fighting.
Hathor was desperately attempting to triangulate her exact position in real-space. Unfortunately, this Chaos craft didn't seem to possess any updated Star Map past her own time, and she was sure things in the universe had changed especially given the Eye of Terror's increased strength and activity. She guessed the modus operandi of the former Red Mist was to blind-jump to a random location, raid, loot, slaughter, then return to the Eye for safety. Cowards, the lot of them.
Unfortunately, without any of the original crew alive, she had no means to perform any additional jumps to get to her original destination; Not that she would attempt to do so even if she could. She couldn't risk any more deviations from coordinates she may remember versus the present time. She was also running out of fuel. It appeared that this ship was in orbit over Sicarius to refuel and restock before another raid, so the fuel storage was damn-near empty when she arrived over this hostile world.
After she gave up trying to decipher her location based on any celestial bodies she could find, which there were none in such an isolated section of real-space as this, she decided to go down to the surface herself.
She just hoped some there were no forces were planetside.
She originally thought of using the transport she had first arrived on Discord for travel down to the surface, but quickly dashed those hopes. If there were hostile and or Imperial forces planetside the first course of action when presented with an unknown aircraft entering their airspace would be to shoot it down. She prefered not to add "getting shot out of the sky" to her current list of problems.
A drop pod, the thought came to her. It is not like she would need to return to the Discord, it was as good as floating space debris to her right now, and a drop pod would significantly reduce the risk of her failing to land on the planet.
A drop pod would work, she decided…
As she fired up the ejection sequence and loaded into a drop pod, she was nervous, quite unlike herself, she thought.
But the thought quickly arrived, she was Hathor Lupercal, the Arch Traitor. The one who nearly slew the Emperor himself, if there were any Imperials down there, they would probably recognize her instantly. Then as quickly attempt to kill her. Perhaps her nerves were warranted this time.
She was quickly reminded she hadn't been in a drop pod in ages as she scrambled to find the lever that controls the mooring clamps which tied her to the Chaos Vessel. There had to be an override inside the pod itself, she was certain of it.
She spotted a large red latch on the roof of the pod, she assumed that was the manual override.
As soon as she threw the latch, a loud mechanical hiss was heard for a brief moment. She knew what that meant. The pod dropped into the launch bay with a lurch as Hathor attempted to strap herself into the closest seat she could find. The problem being she couldn't find one that fit…
Perhaps this was the Trickster subtly toying with her…
Then she remembered, she was wearing Terminator armor. She noticed a spot in the pod designed to fit that specification. Her boots clicked into the restraints with a satisfying clunk, and she waited…
Agonizingly as the pod shook around her…
Then all at once, Hathor was reminded why she hated drop pods…
The drop…
As her pod screamed out of the Discord and into the atmosphere of the planet, all that Hathor was thinking of was hope.
Hope that there was something positive on the planet, seemingly for once in her short new life.
Hope that she could potentially reunite with some of her sisters, if they still lived.
Hope… that she begged wasn't misplaced.
As she entered the atmosphere, explosions rattled the pod. Anti-Aircraft batteries, she suspected. So there was at least some intelligent life on this barren rock after all. And they appeared to be armed.
A red siren began the blare throughout the pod, the alert warning impact was soon. It was only a matter of time till she made contact with the ground. She just had to wait…
Her grip tightened on the mace she was holding, her nerves always got the better of her right before a mission, even though she never showed it to anyone.
She started her internal countdown, a little trick he taught her to help ease nerves…
7… the alarm blared, momentarily drowning out the noise of re-entry,
6… the explosions around her were deafening,
5… she wondered if she would be hit, maybe she should have sent more pods to act as cover,
4… she was getting closer now, the g-forces on her body made it clear,
3… her armor rattled with the swaying of the pod,
2… she closed her eyes, imagining what awaited her on the planet below,
1… she braced…
The pod rattled violently on impact, the ceramite metal walls buckling slightly under the enormous pressure of landing at over 12,000 km/h. Hathor was thankful she was wearing Terminator armor, it softened the impact.
The doors flung open as she stepped out into the wartorn wasteland. She didn't have time to gawk at the destruction around her, she needed to get to a safer position, and scout the area.
She quickly abandoned the drop pod and climbed a small hill to get a survey of the land around her.
She didn't have long range scanners, so she was relying on her eyesight when she spotted something above her in the distance, and it was approaching… it was approaching fast…
IT WAS APPROACHING WAY TOO FAST…
She ducked into a large crater as the artillery shell that had been flying in her direction missed its mark by around 40 meters, knocking dirt and grime all over the place in the process.
So they had seen her then…
She peeked her head out the crater and across the field. It was foggy, likely due to the poor climate of this planet so it makes sense why she didn't see that shell earlier.
In the distance she spotted what appeared to be some kind of tank approaching her. It's fluorescent, yet faded, yellow paint made it stand out among the browns and grays of the battlefield. The lack of treads on said tank made her question what exactly she was looking at. She spotted a marine, who's colours matched the tank, alongside two others who were surveying the area on foot near the tank. They appeared to have the markings of an Imperial Fist.
Some of the Dorn's men!
Her hope rekindled momentarily, the presence of some of her sister's men meant she might still be alive… If anyone would listen to her, it would be Dorn! She was the one who would look at all of the facts of a situation before acting, and never get blinded by her emotions, her thoughts wandered…
Before she was quickly reminded that the marines had shot at her with artillery.
It appeared they were the welcoming party…
Looks like she needed to introduce herself…