**Author's notes: This chapter is two chapters that I couldn't find a way to reasonably break up.**
We were now on our way back to the Divine Retribution again after a tense walk away from our daemon drone encounter. Buried in my thoughts, I began to worry about hereteks and how I hadn't read nearly enough 40k books to become meta enough to be effective against them. At the very least, I was in possession of the former king of all hereteks in my entourage, or at least, someone with a partial collection of his memories. My crew was similarly upset, and feeling their loud thoughts, I psychically reached through reality to briefly sniff their souls. Briefly closing my eyes and flaring my nostrils, I instinctually fanned my senses inward through the local Warp to get a better "taste" of what was happening and what everyone was feeling as I walked.
I stopped.
This instinctual reaction was somewhat new to me! I briefly paused my walk, causing everyone to stop. I turned around and realized that I could easily sense the emotions of all my crewmembers with souls without expending energy. The ability was now fairly passive, and it felt as natural as breathing.
"All is well?" Alberich asked beside me, and I could automatically feel what he was feeling, which was concealed worry tinged with fear. It had a weird smell in the Warp, almost a spicy sour.
Half in a daze, I turned to look at my trailing crewmembers, who now could not make eye contact with me since my halo was up and blazing. With another metaphysical sniff, I motioned for everyone to keep following me, and I turned back around to continue walking.
I realized that I was now passively sensing emotions and intent from souls. My psychic perception was growing stronger as time went on, and sometimes, my new abilities felt so natural that I didn't even think about their usage. This change had often been nearly imperceptible. As I continued walking, I noticed that the souls of my crewmembers were creating a small "cloud" of emotion that I could now perceive in the Immaterium around us. As we walked, everyone was trailing an ethereal emotional mist. And, in the Warp, I felt the eyes of one particular Chaos power smile at me like a giant nerd looking at his favorite figurine as he continued to customize and paint it.
A low rumble of evil divine laughter sounded through the Warp (which subsequently somehow caused an orphanage of Armageddon war orphans to suddenly wake up screaming on the other side of the galaxy), and I brought my attention back to the present.
Through the "cloud" of emotions that my crew was spawning, I could instantly tell that everyone was very worried about our situation, considering the dangers we now faced and our track record of ruining worlds. However, being worried about this right now wouldn't change anything, so I decided to ignore them and move forward.
Yeah, the Dwemer appeared to be very upset at me, but they were also a race of beings that were only from the Elder Scrolls universe. They were probably not developed enough to fight against me when I was in proximity to the Divine Retribution, now that I could summon fire tornados and tear memories from masses of people. If those aliens upset me enough (and I was adequately rested) I could even experiment with my ability to become that terrifying gold titan again.
Eager to have an excuse to use my powers in that way, a warm pleasant wash of anticipation ignited through my soul, causing my teeth to briefly chatter in excitement.
And, as expected, the bloodstone in my pocket began to burn as it fought against the pull of the Imperative. I then mentally silenced my brutal urges as I reached my vessel. Yeah, there was no way I could give this stone up. At some point, maybe I would also need to get a whole crown of these things just to keep me from going apeshit on my own glorious adventures in space despotism, and genocide.
In the snow, which was now howling and back to blizzard conditions, I watched the gangway of the Divine Retribution begin to craft itself out of living gold under my mental instruction. My crewmembers waited quietly behind me. With this stone, I realized that my future felt more confident in my quest for Molech. If I could fend off the mental transformative effects of what this vessel was inflicting upon me while partaking in its incredible gifts, being this ship's captain was a pretty sweet deal. Instead of wondering how Sebastian dealt with his life, I began to wonder about Izumi, the Spoiled Prince, and how his time here had gone. Maybe I could find some logs or journals somewhere on the ship that detailed Izumi's life, and how he fended off the corruption of the god-bird. Instead of a "Spoiled" Prince, maybe I could become a "spoiled" princess by preventing my corruption.
The gangway hardened before me, and I smiled.
"Hello, god-bird," I greeted the Divine Retribution as I climbed its gold stairs behind Alberich, who walked ahead of me. I trailed my right hand along its gold railing. "I'm looking forward to our future relationship now."
The ship, of course, heard this. I felt its presence move like an abyssal beast through my subconscious before three words rose from the deep black waters of its unfathomable intelligence. It somehow managed to bypass the stone with this action.
You... will... serve... the machine spirit flowed through me like the tides of a depthless ocean, its psychic voice an eldritch roar of multiple psychic whispers woven together out of fate and power. In those whispers, I was able to hear Sebastian's distinctive English voice this time, which was intimidating enough to shut my dumb self up. Okay, point taken. Don't taunt the living god-ship, Erika...
Okay, welp, back to business, I thought as I made my way up the ship's neck to the bridge, trying not to shiver in fear. Behind me, I heard Jinnicky talking to himself in a mad screeching language, and Null quickly made an excuse to go attend to him, while everyone else (who remained tense and worried) followed behind me. We needed to find out if there were hereteks already in the system, and if so, how much time we had before we were totally fucked. I made my way up the stairway in the ship's neck, and over to my soul-eating golden throne. My crew followed.
Sighing, I sat down, and mentally ordered the ship to attach itself to me, which it did. Virgil briefly spooked me by snapping into existence on my left side with a bow. "Divine R-retribution," I began, my voice amplified and cracking from my earlier intimidation. "I need you to do one of those long-range in-system scans, please. Are there any other ships nearby?"
I felt the ship "look" upward.
Time unexpectedly began to slow around me as the ship's eye was abruptly drawn to a distant place. I sensed that the ship was feeling concerned (and that it wanted to teach me a lesson), so it decided to drag me along with it as it scanned the local neighborhood this time. The sensation of acceleration and vertigo gripped me, and my eye was pulled forward ahead through the Ix system with insane speed. Within a second, I found myself inexplicably looking at a bare area of nothing out in the middle of nowhere for a moment. Space then began to contort and buckle with colorful lightning and swirls of weird energy. In a crack of horrible light, I watched a tear open up in space, and an unusual leviathan shape painted in red swirls and adorned with black spines emerged from the void! Oh no!
It was a big vessel! This ship was huge and was much larger than the Divine Retribution, and more in line with a more conventional heavy human-made space cruiser. This new ship appeared to be alone aside from an escort of two very small spiky ships that flanked its sides. Unusual eight-armed creatures that resembled spiders or squid monsters were painted and welded with strange care across large areas of this ship's hull. That definitely wasn't an Imperial ship...
A designation then called to me from across the void, and then, I knew this vessel's name. It was called the "Anguished Epiphany," and it had indeed come from Cyclothrathe.
I felt the Divine Retribution study the vessel, and I found myself drawn to this strange big evil ship's underside, which seemed to be... moving? The Divine Retribution psychically seethed as several twitching sharp shapes with unholy auras were perceived. I felt my body on my throne begin to hiss in revulsion. I hated Chaos.
Whatever these things were, they had sharp triangular wings covered in runes and spines. Strange energies wreathed around them, suggesting daemonic strength. One creature even seemed to see me with two burning eyes, and it disengaged from the ship's underbelly to lunge at me!
My mind's eye flickered with these unfamiliar images as I abruptly found myself back on the throne. What were those jagged twitchy bat shapes? Aside from the new ship's status as an obvious heretek vessel, I couldn't immediately parse what those evil machines were. Probably more daemon engines.
"Do you need me on my throne?" Alberich quietly asked me as I came back to reality. Behind me, I sensed that Null was quickly back on his way up to the bridge with Jinnicky in tow. The two were presumably arguing in some kind of grating mechanical language.
"No, don't worry about it. You and Rasputin can stay unattached for now. I'll tell you if I need you guys," I instructed, pinching the bridge of my nose, and forcing my voice to lower to a more reasonable volume. "Just... come up close where I can see you. Jinnicky and Rahm can stay in the back, but Null, you come back up here."
The rest of my crew (save Zok) stood around me before my throne, and they watched me expectantly. Rasputin and the two Blank women stood to my left with Virgil, and Lian stood beside Alberich near his throne on the right. I took a deep breath and began to explain what I had seen, my halo still glowing involuntarily. "I saw a Heretek ship. It just came out of Warp just now. It's in system around the orbit of the seventh planet," I started before scrunching my eyes closed to chase away the vertigo that came from being thrown billions of kilometers across space in a second. "It's a big one. A few kilometers long, I think. Spiky. Red and black with swirls. Spider or squid designs, I'm not sure. And It has..." I paused, still confused. The Divine Retribution began an attempt to parse what I had seen into an image on the central holographic display before us. "It has a flock of these... metal bats? I'm not sure. Whatever they were, they looked like bats hanging upside down beneath the ship's prow."
Null now walked ahead of me to my right. The Tech-priest's upper pair of hands reached upward to grip his head in an expression of discomfort as he watched the display. He then began to aggressively point at the model of the vessel with one of his whip mechadendrites, watching as it crafted itself. "I do so pray I am wrong, but right now, t-this appears to be a Dominator-class cruiser, which is a warship! It appears corrupted, and malformed. This one. This-it looks, I'd say it looks familiar to me!"
"Familiar?" I asked, turning to look at Null suspiciously, who continued to face the display. The ship continued solidifying, weaving itself out of flickering strands of light. Lian was now also pointedly observing the Tech-priest, and I watched as his baleful red-eyed helm glared down at the Tech-priest. In full armor, the Fallen Paladin was incredibly intimidating.
"Yes," Null said as he began to wring his four metal hands, which made a crinkling sound that echoed in on the bridge. "I... I will have to consult my memories, and-"
"Would this help?" I offered and had the vessel display the name of the heretek ship. The words "Anguished Epiphany" appeared over the model as it constructed itself.
Null shook his head. "I'm afraid I do not recognize that name, but it could have flown under another designation before its corruption."
"What a vile name for a void ship," Rasputin judged with a snort. "Dreadful. Who would ever ride upon such an ill-named vessel?"
"Worshippers of Chaos," Virgil added dryly with a heavy swallow. "They flaunt their corruption for all to witness."
No one else responded to this, and we all watched as the ship now began to attempt to construct the shapes I had seen under the heretek vessel. A flock of small metal shapes with triangular wings now appeared beneath the long pointed prow of this ship. Sadly, Null recognized what these were with a very upset shout of "No!"
"These appear to be heldrakes," Lian sounded in his helm-distorted voice. The Fallen Paladin also walked ahead to stand beside Null, who appeared anguished at the sight of this ship and its batlike hitchhikers.
"We are not equipped to fight against a swarm of heldrakes!" Null cried out, obviously distressed.
"Is someone going to tell me what a heldrake is?" I asked.
"It looks like a machine daemon bat," Alberich offered.
The hologram of the ship and its hitchhikers finished estimating itself into existence, and now, we were looking at a holographic model of a long Imperial-styled ship with spikes and spidery squid-related motifs arcing across its hull. Below, several tiny shapes were depicted roosting beneath the prow like insects. With a thought, the ship brought up a magnified image of the heldrakes beside the main image of the ship. The machines were blurry, as I had not been very certain of what I had seen. I brought my attention back to the larger model of the heretek ship. At the very least, there didn't seem to be a bunch of flesh tentacles or eight-pointed stars everywhere (aside from all the creature designs with eight arms, which was probably just as bad). This was still just an estimation as to what I and the Divine Retribution had perceived. I probably just hadn't seen the nastier parts of this ship yet.
Null motioned for all of us to listen and turned to face us all before the central display. "For those who do not know, a heldrake is a flying daemon engine crafted for combat and terror. Each heldrake contains a bound daemon, and in many cases, a trapped and terrorized mortal soul screaming as it is burned against the daemon's rage. Chaos vessels will sometimes travel with heldrakes in tow. I know of a few records of encounters with such entities."
"You do, do you?" I heard Rasputin muse. "Hmm."
"So, no one concretely recognizes this ship or its name?" I asked. No one answered, and now, the ship was supplying us with estimated information. The information appeared adjacent to the model of the ship. Null continued wringing his hands as he turned to watch the information appear.
Vessel name: Anguished Epiphany
Vessel craft: Human/Heretek/Chaos variant, unknown
Alignment: Chaos Undivided
Size: 4km length, 1km width, 2km depth (estimate)
Estimated Crew: 90,000+ estimate, mixed, heretek variant
Type: Explorator
Armed: yes, warning! Presence of high potency sorcerers suspected!
Warp Capable: yes
"Yes, I am sure now. It is a corrupted Dominator-class cruiser. This one is somewhat familiar, and I believe that I may have seen it involved in the Gothic War many years ago when I was a simple low-ranking Magos. But, this one seems odd. It now seems to lack certain weaponry. This is, of course, an estimate, as-"
My psychic senses began to prickle, and my halo briefly brightened around me, causing Null to stop speaking.
The Divine Retribution then passively intoned, "Incoming transmission from vessel Anguished Epiphany. Accept?"
No one said anything for one shocked moment.
"What the fuck? They're calling us?" I spoke in my resonant voice. "Uh, what should I do here?" I asked.
"Incoming transmission from Anguished Epiphany. Accept?" the Divine Retribution repeated.
"No! Don't accept! No!" Null quickly shouted. "We don't know what kind of offensive measures or any kind of technical infection this ship may or may not have! I need time to study it! An opening to a communication line with an unknown vessel using wicked technology may be harmful!"
"You can blame Kelbor-Hal's scrap code infection for that!" Jinnicky jeered suddenly from the rear of the bridge. "The infection of technology across eons! The destruction of progress! I beg you, don't listen to him this time around, my Omnissiah! He will betray you again like he did before! Destroy him! Annihilate his soul!"
I watched Null as he turned around and blinked repeatedly, definitely unbalanced by what Jinnicky had said. The Tech-priest then barked some kind of grating order which caused Rahm to growl some kind of binharic curse.
"You and your hereteks will stay away from me!" Jinnicky jeered further. In my mind's eye, I knew that Jinnicky was now pointing up at the holographic display with his remaining mechadendrites, indicating the name of the heretek ship. "These other hereteks, they're probably just your people coming to say hello, aren't they, Fabricator-General? They're from Cyclothrathe, which falls under your command, yes? Your family and loved ones are here, Arch-Heretek! That's your personal 'Anguished Epiphany!'"
I tried to ignore yet another crew confrontation and commanded, "Don't answer the heretek ship!" to the Divine Retribution. Maybe these guys were like salesmen or Mormons and they'd leave if we just pretended that we weren't here, I joked to myself. Before I could say anything else, Null turned and charged behind me!
I then heard the sound of barking and screeching metal voices, as now, I perceived that Null had actually snapped! Even though I wasn't facing the rear of the bridge, I could tell that the Tech-priest (who was getting triggered by being called "Fabricator-General" and "Kelbor-Hal" all the time) had run back around the thrones to pop Jinnicky in the cogitator for running his mouth repeatedly. Rahm also leapt to action and grappled the maddened spider Magos with his new mechadendrites. "Someone take him off the damn bridge!" I ordered before closing my eyes.
I leaned back on my throne, annoyed at everyone's stupid bullshit again. I was one fucking failure of an Empress-creature if everyone under me was always arguing and fighting, wasn't I? Metal scuffling sounds and crying echoed on the bridge as Rahm and Kaas began to drag Jinnicky downstairs again. I opened my eyes and saw that aside from Null, the rest of the crew simply stood around my throne impassively, watching the event with disdain. One of the Blank sisters cursed in Nubuan, calling him a "machine eunuch" as she crossed her arms over her chest. At the same time, the heretek ship was still trying to get a hold of me, and I closed my eyes, ignoring their calls.
"If he were under my direct command I would have ordered his implants torn from him long ago!" Null's voice sounded behind me with exasperation as he walked into my field of view again.
"That is not your call," Lian offered, his voice low and severe. "You have not been given authority."
"We should just give him and the jewel to the damned xenos!" Rasputin groaned. "Why protect this fool?"
The heretek vessel gave up trying to contact me, and I opened my eyes. "Make sure Jinnicky doesn't come up here screaming again," I said, projecting my voice through the ship so that it could be heard in the stairway area. Vigil shook his head lightly in disapproval. "Null, I need your expertise. When will it be here?" I pointed to the display model of the heretek ship. Helpfully, a model of the Ix system appeared before us. Ix was where our eagle-shaped icon was parked on the left side of the central display, and to the right, an icon with an eight-pointed star was very slowly crawling its way here. Below it, there were changing statistics that designated speed and current distance.
Null walked ahead again. He pointed upward at the Chaos ship. "Approximately 40 AU away. Approximately 6 billion kilometers distant. A typical Dominator-class cruiser could sprint in conventional space and be here within eight or so hours, but I do not know specifically what modifications or corruptive alterations this ship has that would affect its speed. These statistics, right now, only seem to be estimates. The vessel does not appear to be in an extreme hurry, so judging from its current rate of speed, and if it remains in the Materium, it will likely be here in around 12-16 hours."
"Divine Retribution, how much time do you have left before you can lift off again?" I asked the ship.
I felt the vessel focus on its injuries. The main issue was the damaged left wing and parts of the ship's damaged head and back. I felt that this ship needed full maneuverability of both wings to fly effectively in both the Immaterium and in normal reality. The ship was still regenerating.
"Estimate, 23 hours away from minimal regeneration for effective flight. Emergency translation can be attained at current conditions with a significant margin of danger in the Immaterium. Earliest safe translation estimated: 12 hours with no impulse at Warp. Regeneration time can be shortened with additional fuel."
I instantly intuitively understood that to mean that going to Warp right now would be dangerous. With a scarred ship and badly damaged wing, we had a base 9% chance of a Parson shield failure per hour if we traveled through the Warp like this. At the very bare minimum, if we waited 12 hours we could translate to Warp with safety, but if we did that, we wouldn't have use of our engines at all after translation, and we would be at the mercy of the currents of the Immaterium.
And, the hereteks were estimated to be here around that time. Even if we were able to get to Warp at all, we'd be dead in the water of the Great Ocean, and easy pickings for whatever vessel would want to surf on by and kill us!
Null understood what this meant, and I watched as he slouched sadly.
I couldn't help but chuckle. Hereteks were on their way, and the Dwemer had threatened that they would be coming back. Honestly, I didn't give a shit about those aliens. This wasn't going to end well for them, I thought. Sure, they had basically threatened me, but it really felt like they were out of their depth here, and they didn't even know it. They seemed to be somewhat advanced, but not enough to actually get into a fight with both me and a Chaos ship filled with hereteks eager to skin and experiment on new flesh. Yet another universe had totally screwed them...
"We can't leave, can we?" Virgil asked sadly.
"No, we can't," Null answered.
"If we try to go to Warp now, we run the risk of having a Parson shield failure. The ship isn't ready to leave yet," I explained. Alberich, Rasputin, and the two Blanks now appeared in front of my throne. "The ship says it can leave in around 12 hours, but we wouldn't have any impulse in the Warp. So, we're going to need to either wait another 12-24 hours, or we need to feed the ship souls."
Null made a humming sound as he stood before me again, facing the display. From here, I could see that he was still lightly trembling in anger because of what Jinnicky had said to him. The Tech-priest then turned back to me before quickly averting his gaze again before speaking. "I have an idea, but it may not be a comfortable one."
I nodded and motioned for Null to speak. He was having a great deal of trouble speaking suddenly, apparently very reluctant to voice this idea. Oh boy, here we go...
"W-while Magos Jinnicky slips more and more to madness, there is one option he opens for us. His so-called 'legions' of what he called 'gravel men' he spoke about earlier. The Magos was sent understaffed to a world filled with primitive tribesmen, and so, he has been busy in his conversion of the local population into servitors as well as the construction of automata."
"Oh yeah," I said, nodding. "He's got that huge robo-scorpion too, but I don't know what we can do against a giant ship filled with 90,000 hereteks, daemons, and heldrakes along with whatever other weapons it has."
Null nodded slightly, his eyes searching. He was afraid. "While his scorpion pet is only one entity, the Magos likely has more defensive automata at his tower. Since he recognizes you as Omnissiah, if you order him to send whatever defensive capabilities he retains to us, this will bolster our defensive capabilities. It is at least something we can muster. But, speaking of this incoming vessel, there is something unusual about it, I must say. It deviates from the template a great deal. We may not be as doomed as I initially assumed. Hmm." The Tech-priest turned back around to study the model of the Anguished Epiphany.
"There is another option," Alberich offered. "It may be distasteful, but it will allow us to be safe. This world is populated by primitive men, and those tribes are nearby, correct?"
I nodded. Alberich then walked to stand directly before me and straightened up with a clap of his heels of his black boots.
"The Divine Retribution needs either souls or time to mend itself. This planet, my leader, is likely doomed, if I were to guess, considering our history. I suggest that we feed it with either the aliens that threatened us or the primitives that live out in the wilds."
"You propose killing the natives to feed the ship," I observed, feeling my blood run cold hearing the Nazi's suggestion. Around me, I felt the Divine Retribution consider this, and aside from my basic sense of human decency, I felt a sense of disapproval that was muffled by the bloodstone in my pocket.
Null nodded but did not turn around. He was still intently studying the model of the incoming ship. "This idea, while not exactly tasteful, does have its merits, yes. A world being visited by a heretek vessel is likely a world that will soon experience death very soon. The natives, along with the xenos, are very likely condemned due to their proximity to the Hell-Forge. Their consumption will be a blessing to them instead of whatever the hereteks are planning to do."
Over the shoulders of my crewmembers, I watched as the Anguished Epiphany moved a tiny bit on the map. The vessel was speeding up. Its estimated arrival time was now 12 hours and 23 minutes. A new notation had also appeared, which now said:
Small craft:
Two small escorts: unknown make and build
Heldrakes: 4-7
"Funny you should suggest that idea, Alberich," I said morbidly, choking an awkward laugh. "Remember when we were trying to run away from Levant during all that fun with Am'Erika, and Null was all like 'Let's feed Alberich to the ship'? Good times, guys. Good times."
My crew stood nervously around me, each person afraid and expecting me to magically come up with a solution to save them. Rasputin, not pleased with any of this, said something in Russian that instantly translated on the Divine Retribution's display as, "Fuck this, I'm getting a drink," before wandering back down the bridge stairway. Whatever. I let him go.
"So aside from hunting down and killing innocent people, here's what we can do:" I began. "We can stay and somehow fight the hereteks. Maybe during this fight, we can kill enough of them to feed the ship so it regenerates enough for us to run off from here. That sounds dangerous. Null, what can that ship do?" I asked, motioning to the display.
Null turned around to face me again. "As I said before, Dominator-class cruisers are typically used as warships in the Imperium. Some are caught by the enemy, and converted to other uses. Curiously and most fortuitously, I have seen that this vessel seems to lack a Nova Cannon, if this profile is correct. In fact-" Null turned upward to observe the model again. "It doesn't appear to have much in the way of visible heavy weaponry at all, which is probably why the Divine Retribution seems to be classifying the Anguished Epiphany as an explorator vessel. The vessel also does not travel with a proper escort which is typical for a warship. This could be because its escort has yet to arrive from Warp, so I am unsure."
"So Null, I have a question. Just call me curious here," I mused, now remembering what the daemon had said when we were outside earlier. "Is it possible that there could be something like a kill code for a vessel like this? Like, if you were to transmit a certain code, could you just shut that ship down?"
The Tech-priest didn't answer immediately and turned around. He narrowed his green animated eyes at me. He then nervously glanced toward the rest of the crewmembers on the bridge.
"Tell me," I instructed.
Virgil was now glaring at Null, but Alberich appeared very interested, and his expression brightened slightly with hope.
"Yes. In some worlds, depending on dominion, there exists a sort of master code that can shut down manufactorums, vessels, or various other aspects of a Forge-World. However, these codes are often changed or lost, and require a specific method of delivery. You cannot simply shout a code at an upcoming vessel and cause it to fall out of the sky. Or, you normally can't, I should say."
"For the sake of argument, let's say you knew of such a code. How would using it work?"
"I... I would have to use it in this instance. But, because of security measures, these codes cannot be remotely triggered. I would have to be inside the voidship in a very specific area, or, close to a ranking member who can remotely interface with it. Someone in authority, like another Archmagos or a high-ranking Magos."
"Sounds like you're going to try a code, doesn't it," I drawled.
Null watched me, his eyes still narrowed. "Can we... speak privately Inheritor?"
On the bridge, Null, Lian, Alberich, and Virgil presently stood around me. The two Skitarii were guarding Jinnicky, who had been dragged down the stairs again while the two Blanks guarded the entry to the bridge. While I didn't like that Null continued to keep secrets about himself from me, the knowledge about a kill code had been given to me by a daemon, and I didn't want the rest of the gang to know that I had been following Tzeentch's advice lately. I had not planned to tell anyone about how I knew about the bloodstone, or how I was able to open its containment field. Yeah, I would rather the rest of the crew not know about my dalliances in taking daemonic advice.
Having this thought, I felt the ship's presence reach up through the throne into my soul, and express its displeasure.
Chaos lies, it telepathically hissed at me like a rainstorm. It will offer you boons to open your trust, and then, it will lead you to ruin.
I decided to ignore this and answered Null with an announcement, "Alright, everyone except Null, off the bridge. I'll call you all back up here when I need to speak with you again, which will probably be very soon."
Virgil vanished immediately, and Alberich's eyes lingered suspiciously on Null before the German Traveler began to make his way back downstairs. Lian was the last to leave. The Fallen Paladin said, "I am at your command for any action you wish. I follow you without question." Lian's armored head briefly turned toward Null, and I felt a tinge of aggression echo from his soul.
And then, the bridge was empty.
"So, when were you going to tell me that you might have a kill switch for a heretek fleet?" I asked casually. "Isn't that something you should have brought up earlier here?"
"I... well," Null began nervously, beginning to wring his hands again. "My memories, they're incomplete. One of these memories seems to include an operational code for Cyclothrathe, but, it is from the Horus Heresy. I... I-I-"
Null stammered and began to shiver again before me. "I was... I remember a memory of being given this code as a gift of fealty by Archmagos Yelav Draykavac. And, sadly, I do not remember what exactly this code can do. I highly doubt that it can shut down the entire Hell-Forge's operations, but my intuition sings to me that it is important. Truthfully, I am uncertain as to the veracity and effectiveness of this one code, and considered it useless, seeing as it has been many thousands of years." The Tech-priest held out all four of his arms in a conciliatory gesture.
"And this is completely separate from your, uh, identity codes?" I asked.
"Completely. And, I must say, your precognition is increasing. Your ability to pluck information out of the ether is, well, it's becoming terrifying. It was very difficult to keep secrets from your predecessor!"
I did not tell Null about how I knew about his code. "So, about this other Archmagos, Cyclothrathe's leader from the Heresy. Is he still around? What was he like?" I asked.
Null shrugged and shook his head. "Draykavac was a beast. He wore an equine skull as a mask at all times, and he stank of rotting and burning gore from his implants constantly rejecting his flesh. He was known for his brutality and the unauthorized servitorization of entire worlds for the Warmaster, some for his own personal enjoyment. I have a m-memory of speaking to him on the glories of technology while needing to deactivate my olfactory senses because of his stench. I remember that he boasted and joked that only he and I were worthy of the rulership of Mars. He had a reputation among his contemporaries as unhinged, and... and the W-warmaster himself, even in his tainted delusions of grandeur, found him to be difficult." The Tech-priest took a moment to compose himself and continued. "Gratefully, we do not need to concern ourselves with him any longer. His flagship was discovered adrift after the Scouring in the Maelstrom. It had been attacked and savaged by an unknown party, ultimately doing Mars a favor."
"At least that's something," I said, looking over Null's shoulder, watching the Anguished Epiphany crawl forward. The ship was skipping along at a significant fraction of light speed, but since space was big, it was going to take a fair amount of time to get here, provided it didn't decide to speed up again or randomly go to Warp right on top of us. While we had a few options now, it still felt like we were outgunned. A strange tingly psychic sizzle alighted through my body, and I got the sense that the Divine Retribution's eye was critically watching me, even through the power of the bloodstone. This got me thinking. The ship had saved us from Nubua's disintegration when I had asked it for help. Maybe I could ask it again?
I felt the god-bird's energy hum in approval through me.
"So, listen. I'm going to go into the ship and ask it for some insight. Tell everyone, as in the entire crew and Jinnicky, to come back up here in about 20 minutes so I can give some orders. I'll order Jinnicky to obey with Sight again if you need me to, but just in case, please find a way to keep that guy under control. And-"
I felt my bloodstone begin to react against the Divine Retribution's eye, and I quickly reached into my pocket and removed the magic soul-protectant jewel. It was warm, and it glowed with a blood-red brilliance in my hand. After a moment, I reluctantly offered the stone to Null. "Here, hold on to this for a minute, and don't show it to anyone. The Divine Retribution helped us when we were desperate and trying to run away from Nubua when it was disintegrating, so I'm going to see if it can help us again."
"Very well, Inheritor," Null said as he placed the stone in one of his pockets. "I will obey eternally," the Tech-priest bowed deeply and made his way off the bridge.
And now, I was alone, and staring at another dangerous situation. I blinked, and in the space of that blink, I beheld a vision of Sebastian sitting on this very throne, his hands on his head and doubled over. Something was causing him great worry, and I felt that he was reaching into the machine spirit of the god-bird to help him. This was dangerous, and I had just been stung by daring the machine spirit just a short time ago. But, this was very important. Even if the Anguished Epiphany didn't seem to have weapons (which were probably just hidden using space magic), it still had those heldrake things and lots of monster Chaos Tech-priests along with psykers. We were outgunned and in a bad position right now, so maybe a dip into the oversoul for advice was warranted.
Bracing myself, I began to intentionally drop the barriers to my soul. From below me on the throne, the ship began to reach upward and through me. My Corona started glowing brightly, and I closed my eyes.
"You see what's going on, Divine Retribution. Can you help?" I asked the ship.
The ship gripped me like a hare in the talon of a giant eagle, and its power began to pour into my mind. Much of what I began to see was difficult to puzzle through, as it was mostly abstract, but the ship seemed to understand what was going on, so I let it do its thing. Images began to flicker across my consciousness like half-seen dreams.
I was now outside the Anguished Epiphany again, which I could now see much more clearly. It had a distinctive jagged black prow covered by a massive stylized spider in red, and the rest of its length was covered in short spines and more spider motifs. Observing the tainted ship, I noticed that the heretek vessel was protected by some kind of shield to prevent any metaphysical spying within its interior. That didn't make any difference to me, so I bypassed it with a push of power.
My eye was drawn to a small group of hereteks that seemed to be having a meeting with several others of their kind. They were in some kind of wide domed room with a colorful stained glass ceiling that was adorned with more spider designs. These guys were really into spiders, I observed. A Magos or Archmagos was gesturing with many arms and mechadendrites toward a projected model of a winged eagle that floated in the center of the room in a green holographic shimmer. The Magos had many appendages which reminded me of Magos Jinnicky's unusual torso, but this individual's lower body had been changed to resemble a metal worm or snake-like creature with numerous metal insect-clawed legs, similar to the daemon we had just met. The figure scuttled the room, gesturing grandly as it described the eagle in a harsh, screeching language I could not immediately understand. The other mechanical monstrosities in this room nodded and pointed with excitement to the model again and again. Some even clapped their hands (or other appendages)! The mood here was strangely positive. With a short spiritual inhalation, I realized that the smell of taint wasn't very powerful here, which surprised me, but it was still present. It did not seem that they were readying themselves for war despite knowing that we were here. We seemed to be a curiosity to them, which was why they had tried to speak to us.
Despite their happy natures, these people were still tainted, and that much was obvious. There were a handful of psykers on this large ship, and their souls smelled unappetizing but edible. A few bright spots were sensed, designating that there were at least three more reasonably potent sorcerers on this ship. These psykers weren't as strong as I was, so this didn't bother me.
The eye of the Divine Retribution turned away from the heretek ship, now convinced that they were not as big of a threat as I had initially thought. The ship, unfortunately, didn't seem to want to explain itself, and only really told me that the heretek situation wasn't anything to get worried about, as it could easily be dealt with. It also noted that the hereteks could be consumed for fuel, but it would not be ideal. Their motives were still mysterious. The only thing I could concretely understand was that their visit was one of great curious interest and not one of conquest.
My Sight was then dragged across space and back to Jinnicky's tower. Immediately, the ship dismissed Jinnicky and his forces, as they were not a threat to me at all. There, I saw his deactivated robo-scorpion covered in a few centimeters of snow outside, and in a nearby cavern, I saw battle servitors waiting patiently for orders from their master. There seemed to be about twelve especially fierce battle servitors in this room alone, and I sensed that there were many more servitors and battle automata that sat in an idle state nearby. The crazy metal spider guy had been busy in his time here making a small army!
The Divine Retribution made a quick calculation that while these servitors were not good enough for eating, they could be used in my defense once I dominated their master. The ship encouraged me to make use of these servitors for my defense. The god-bird then looked away from Jinnicky's tower, and I was now drawn somewhere else.
The eye of the godlike machine spirit was drawn into an expansive dark cave many paces in diameter. A meter-wide hole in the cave's ceiling allowed light to shine in from about ten meters above. Below, a large fire burned, and numerous men and women wearing animal skins and furs were speaking heatedly in an unknown language. Immediately, the Divine Retribution calculated that these people were not dangerous enough to be a threat to me.
The presence that was currently me watched the tribesmen as they gathered in their cave, which I now knew to be about ten kilometers to the south and hidden in one of the rocky hills that sat below the mountains. Some of them appeared fearsome, and they wore skulls atop their heads as adornment. The group stood before the fire, and they spoke in grandiose terms. One of them was pointing toward something ugly in a dark corner near the wall of the grotto, and when I went to look, I saw a gory sight. It was a recently killed male Dwemer who had been stripped nude and desecrated with numerous terrible injuries while being suspended from a cross!
While I couldn't accurately parse what these people were saying, I felt that the emotion of anger in this area was very thick to the point of being stifling. Curious about what was going on here, I pushed further into their cloud of souls. Since they were humans living without taint, I found that I could see them and their motivations more clearly.
The tribesmen (who called themselves the "Pale Children") had been harried by the Dwemer for a very long time. The Dwemer would cull their population for slaves at irregular intervals over many years but would leave most of the local people alone to keep their population steady, essentially treating them like a resource. Because the Dwemer were somewhat advanced, the tribesmen couldn't do much to defend themselves but fought back when they could. During a very recent confrontation, they had managed to kill one of the Dwemer warriors that had ventured topside, which was a rare victory for them.
I had discovered that the reason for this impassioned meeting was that Magos Jinnicky had apparently wiped out entire families (including one small tribe!) to make his servitors over the last few weeks. The appearance of the Divine Retribution and the sudden ignition of stars across the night sky was a divine omen for the Pale Children, and now, they were finally gathering multiple tribes for war. The impression was that these people hated both the Dwemer and Jinnicky, and were now readying themselves for a desperate fight for freedom.
Concerning us, the primitive people didn't quite understand what we were. Their seers had instructed their people that we were unaligned with their enemies and that we were simply a powerful omen for their cause. Since we had never struck against them, they wanted to leave us alone while sending cautious scouts out to simply observe us. A few bright souls even happily speculated that I was a divine messenger of their lost god, who was said to ride upon a gold eagle in the sky. A minority of the Pale Children professed that the eagle was their lost god himself. Despite this reverence, the Divine Retribution took an investigatory sniff inside the souls of the Pale Children and concluded that they'd be good food, but the god-bird did not want to eat them. They were innocent humans who were showing me respect, and therefore, I should not hurt them, even if some of their souls smelled especially tasty, as some of them were psykers.
Finally, the Divine Retribution's mind then dragged me beneath the surface of Ix. I flew quickly through rock as if I had no mass, and after a short time, I broke through to witness a vast city made of bronze-toned metal within an expansive cavern. I was now soaring through the subterranean Dwemer city of Mer-Zel! A real-life Dwemer city, I marveled! It was huge, and it had to be at least several kilometers in length. Words could not describe just how epic this scene was. Ornately carved massive stone pillars offered support for the cavern's ceiling hundreds of meters above. Bronze spires and well-tended gardens of giant glowing fungi the size of trees made this incredible place exotic and beautiful.
My eye was drawn to a massive rectangular arena filled with grandiose metal and marble Babylonian-styled statues of warriors holding various weapons. Inside this arena, people who appeared to be armored soldiers were sharpening weapons and practicing combat techniques against one another. In another space, I witnessed groups of Dwemer in robes walking down long straight stone halls as they activated various robotic automata, which groaned to life with a hiss of steam and a crackle of electricity. In another hall, I discovered something strange. Here, there were groups of collared glassy-eyed humans that had been partially modified with technology. They almost looked like servitors! These were the tribesmen that the Dwemer had taken from the surface! A heavily altered Dwemer man (who appeared to be over half machine) stood before them. He was giving these wretched slave-people instructions on their objectives for some sort of new mission. Sadly, I was not able to understand what these instructions were before my attention was pulled away again. I felt the Divine Retribution become both alarmed and angry.
I found myself looking out over the subterranean metropolis again, and now, I was upset. Overall, I could sense that the souls of the Dwemer radiated excitement. The emotion consumed much of the city, and some citizens cheered and hugged one another in the streets. I saw a tall warrior woman with a laser cannon strapped across her back hugging her family goodbye, promising to return from the surface. Dark-haired Dwemer children saluted people of authority who marched through the streets. They appeared to be soldiers, and they offered what sounded like sensationalized news from the surface, which included the appearance of the stars and the Divine Retribution.
A strange noise dragged across my mind like a cat running around on a church organ, and my perception was drawn somewhere new. I was now in an unknown area of Mer-Zel that looked almost like a steam-filled brass boiler room, but instead of engines, boilers, and other various steampunk machinery, I saw what appeared to be an extremely long and multi-tiered pipe organ fitted with numerous jewels and strange runes that glowed hotly to my Sight. Multiple Dwemer stood around it, each busily tinkering and adjusting different and unknowable gages on the machine. Each of these individuals wore helmets that were similar to the bladed helmets that I had seen Azsabrina wear when she was "singing" the snow away when we were walking in the snow. As I watched, a stately older woman whose lower body had been replaced by a clockwork spider scuttled up to the giant thing that could be an instrument, and with a delicate hand, she played three terrible notes on the machine. The noise that issued forth chilled me to my very core!
My Sight was then drawn to one very old individual with a long braided white beard and cold eyes. He was meeting with the very same three Dwemer we had met before in what appeared to be a throne room of polished gold, brass, and black velvet. Elaborate sculptures of fanciful creatures and stylized figures were carved upon the metal walls of this royal room. The three Dwemer were kneeling before the man, who appeared to be a leader or a king, and their souls radiated excitement and hope. Investigating further, I could tell that the old man's soul was unique; it held a strange purity that I didn't see in nearly everyone I had met here in this reality. I pushed further, and then, I knew a secret.
This old Dwemer was a Traveler! He had been born in another reality and lacked the slight veneer of taint that everyone native to this universe had. He was the leader of Mer-Zel, and he held the designation of something called a "Chief Tonal Architect", which was a person who had skill in the manipulation of reality using sound and song. The elder wore a shimmering red jewel over dark robes embellished with gold, and he held a staff with a glowing diamond cube at its point. A crown of shimmering jewels along with one large clear diamond nearly glowed with power against my Sight. He was speaking with great anticipation, and happiness blazed from the three familiar individuals who kneeled before him. The three then stood and saluted the ruler before leaving the opulent room.
The Dwemer, like the Pale Children, were readying themselves for war! And, not only that, the Divine Retribution sensed that we had underestimated them and that they were my greatest threat. Their astrologers had predicted our coming, and the Dwemer saw us as a means to an end, as they yearned to go "home." Their leaders were extremely interested in the Divine Retribution as a vessel of divinity that they could use to "cross the heavens" to head back to Nirn. While these people were initially interested in peace, we had insulted them by not returning the jewel that had belonged to one of their leaders, and we had not given up the monster in the tower that had killed some of their number. Since the Dwemer were very prideful, this was a big enough insult that they now had an excuse to war with us instead.
And that was all I needed to hear...
The Divine Retribution smiled evilly. These people were xenos that had struck against us, and therefore, fair game for consumption. The Dwemer would be delicious to eat, as many of them had psychic capabilities, and vast, intelligent souls. As a Traveler, that one elder was an especially powerful man with a vastly nutritious soul. Simply devouring this one individual by himself would be a substantial meal, and would enable us to regenerate much sooner. And, that jewel on his crown had piqued my interest. Spoiled Prince's crown was a large diamond surrounded by rubies, so I began to wonder if the Chief Tonal Architect's crown was a clear bloodstone.
Interested (and hungry) I continued to push my senses further, attempting to see exactly who this tasty soul was. The elder then froze and looked about the empty room with concern, stroking his braided white beard. He then somehow looked right at me, and said, "NO!" in a powerful fate-twisting voice, causing me actually to be pushed out of the Dwemer city! Woah!
That actually surprised me, and I felt the ship's machine spirit bristle in indignation to the point where my feathers ruffled slightly. This was enough to get the Dwemer more formally marked as an "enemy of humankind" in its heart, and I felt a sudden wave of hatred toward them fill me.
"To oppose me is to seek your destruction, fools," I heard myself distantly speak on my throne in many whispers. "I am the divine retribution of humankind against those that would subdue it, and I am the way."
The god-bird then retreated into itself with this information, and I felt it consider the future somewhere in its unknowable heart. This time, the entity dragged me deep inside itself, as it wanted to "show me" something.
I fell backward into the spirit of the Divine Retribution. Gold energy wreathed around me like an ocean of light, and it felt like I was now in the heart of a star. It was so bright! My skin began to uncomfortably burn as I sensed several bright shadows in this place of heavenly hellfire, each with vastly different personalities and minds. They sang together in a dissonant symphony of souls, passing information on probable futures between their echo-spirits, their wellsprings of experience over millions of years of operation. Many different races were present in this strange place. Some were human, and some resembled Aeldari, but other completely unknowable and foreign aliens also swam and chattered through me. One bright shadow was an insect creature that vaguely resembled a moth with numerous eyes, multiple long limbs, and wide fluttering wings. All the shades whirled around me. Using its great store of information, the oversoul began to extrapolate futures that raced in branching fractal paths ahead of me in time, and as this happened, images quickly flickered in my mind's eye of possible futures.
I witnessed a bright shadow of myself walking through a grand dark city of jagged spires made out of flawless obsidian, and my companions walked behind me, their souls quaking in fear.
A field of red poppies reached toward a Warp-tainted sky, their flower heads each singing a soothing song that whispered of welcome rest and sleep.
I beheld myself floating and wreathed in gold fire before a rift that glowed and screamed with many impossible colors. A relieved smile crossed my face as I turned a blade inward toward my heart.
An inhuman woman-creature with short dark hair and blazing red eyes reached for my neck with long clawed fingers. She roared, "You are no god!" in a deep, unnatural voice.
A length of long black hair was held in my hand. It smelled of fear, hate, and pain, and it was bloody at its base. Around me, a whirlwind of anguish, screams, and panic sang in the Warp, and I smiled.
A consensus of a sort was reached with the bright shades, and the Divine Retribution allowed me to come back to myself. I was filled with new knowledge, and now, I understood everything a little better.
With a gasp, I suddenly woke up on my throne to see my crewmembers standing before me. Everything was bright and blurry, and I was now aware that Alberich had taken his coat off and was hitting me with it. Confused and defensive because someone was hitting me, I telepathically picked Alberich up and threw him across the bridge, right through the holographic screen in front of me. It was then that I realized that I had somehow caught fire. Oops. I willed the fire to extinguish itself on my coat.
"Woah," I vocalized, my vision slowly returning. My ears were ringing, and I then realized that everyone around me was shouting, and someone was running downstairs to get water. Alberich had clambered to his feet, and an alarmed halo of energy had emerged around his head. "Hey, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm not on fire anymore. Just calm down. I was just a little too deep inside the ship's oversoul."
"You're smoking," Lian remarked, now standing beside me, his green eyes in a wide expression of concern. While he was still in his armor, he had removed his helmet.
"Aw, thanks, you're sweet," I answered with a loopy giggle as I continued to blink away my temporary blindness. Yeah, I'm not doing that again if I can help it for the foreseeable future. That little stunt had literally set me on fire. I took a few deep breaths and forced my voice to hush again. "So, everyone, I asked the ship about our current predicament, and it showed gave me some insight."
"Foresight," Null said appreciatively. "The gift of foresight!"
"Sure," I said. "But listen, the ship isn't all that worried about the hereteks for some reason. It has been estimated that the vessel's threat level is low, considering what powers we have and what we can do." I closed my eyes, digging into the new knowledge that I now possessed. "Plus, we may have a secret weapon that can knock them out."
"The hereteks are most certainly a threat," Null interjected, and I raised my eyebrow at the Tech-priest knowingly. In response, Null nervously smoothed his robes, and asked, "What else did you divine?"
"First, I found out that the tribesmen are a group of a bunch of different tribes called the 'Pale Children'. They're gathered in a big cave to the south of here, and they're talking about going to war against the Dwemer and Jinnicky."
"Me?!" Jinnicky interrupted. Oh, right. He was here.
"Yes, you. Now, shut up and listen. The Pale Children don't care about us, and some of them are even saying that this eagle is god. Since we never did anything bad to them, they're fine with just leaving us alone. But, they're very upset with Jinnicky and the Dwemer culling their numbers to make slaves."
"But, forgive me Omnissiah, they are worthless people. Awful, smelly primitives! Servitorizing them is the best thing that could happen to them. That process at least brings them closer to the divinity of the machine, and gives them a taste of your godly nature!"
No one said anything, and I sighed, shaking my head.
"The biggest problem right now is the Dwemer, according to the ship. They have more advanced technology than we know. Their astrologers predicted that we'd show up at some point and that this ship would show them their destiny while "revealing the heavens" to them. They had been preparing to go to war against Jinnicky and his tower for weeks after a few confrontations at his tower, but now, they're planning on going to war against us instead if we don't capitulate to them. They have a real army, and they're interested in the Divine Retribution as a divine vehicle. They even know we're stuck here now somehow."
"Oh yes, these xenos, they understand Low Gothic. They just do not speak it," Jinnicky barged into the conversation again. He was now standing before me, and Rahm was clutching his shoulder with a mechadendrite. "They did not need a translator when you spoke, as you know. They are wily xenos, faking their ignorance!"
Everyone was silent.
"I'll silence him," Lian quickly offered.
"No, wait," I quickly commanded. Fuck. I doubled over on my throne with my hands on my head. We are all such fuckups, I swear to god. If this were a 40k story everyone would hate us for all the dumb shit we do. "Why didn't you tell us this before?" I asked through my hands.
"Because you didn't ask," Jinnicky said before me with a shrug. "You are my Omnissiah, so I presumed you had a crafty scheme planned to ensnare them. The Omnissiah's motivations are unknowable to mere mortals, of course!"
"They understood us?" Alberich asked as he walked back over to face me again, awkward guilt now painting itself across his features.
"I don't think we said anything all that bad outside of Null talking about unclean xenos," I said, straightening back up. "But, they probably heard us talking about not being able to take off, so they know we're stuck here for a while. Shit."
"Does this change anything?" Null asked, playing the part of the adult in the room. He was now standing to the right of the mad Magos, who was currently chanting to himself in binary.
I shook my head. "Not really. Anyway, the ship says that the Dwemer are our biggest problem. They have a subterranean army filled with machines and their own variant of servitors. They also have psykers. I got the vibe that they're mustering their forces and they're going to come back up here soon. By the looks of their preparations, they're not quite ready to leave yet, so I'd say we have at least another half a day before they're here at the earliest. And, something else about them worries me," I said, taking a deep breath. "They somehow saw me when I was in the Divine Retribution's spirit and spying on their city. Their elder is a powerful man. He's not only a psyker but get this: He's a damn Traveler!"
"Over 900 years old?" Alberich asked. "So, they were being deceptive on the bridge during their visit."
I nodded. "Their Traveler leader is also something called a 'Chief Tonal Architect'. These guys have some kind of crazy science called Tonal Architecture that involves using sound to break reality and alter fate. I remember reading something about it back home, but I'm not too sure about the details. What makes the Dwemer so dangerous is that they seem to be able to mess with reality itself. It's part of the reason why they ended up displaced from their home universe, I think. And, they're interested in the Divine Retribution for that reason too!"
"Do you think they mean to steal this ship?!" Null asked in horror.
"What are your orders, Inheritor?" Lian asked.
I sat back in my gold throne. "Okay, so, I'd prefer not to fight anyone here. If we don't want to fight, there's that cave nearby filled with tribesmen that the ship can eat and run away as Alberich said earlier, but since they're human and not fighting against us, the ship doesn't want to do that."
Alberich appeared disappointed, but still stood nearby, listening attentively.
"The ship says that it can leave in 12 hours at the very earliest at its current rate of regeneration, but as I said before, we'd be dead in the Warp and unable to use engines. That's bad. The ship still doesn't seem to think that the hereteks are all that dangerous, but it also told me that it can eat some of them for food, even if they aren't all that good. The ship suggested that it would be a good idea to send Jinnicky back over to his tower. We'll get him to send his servitor gravel men army over here to help us defend ourselves."
"Glorious it will be to fight for the Omnissiah!" the mad Magos cheered and clapped his hands. "But, my shuttle, it is scuttled! It will take too much time to rebuild a new engine! What should I do?"
"If we got you back up to your tower, could you repair your robo-scorpion and just like, hike down here with your forces within a few hours? Is that possible?" I asked Jinnicky.
Jinnicky nodded frantically. "Yes, I can. Only a bit less than two dozen kilometers. Not a far walk! Not even in a snowstorm! There's a trail that I've been trying to destroy recently because the xenos and the tribesmen keep using it and I keep having to kill them!"
"Excuse me," Rasputin's voice drawled back onto the bridge. The Russian now had a metal flask, and he took a long drink as he walked ahead into my field of view. "This is all ridiculous. Give the xenos whatever jewel you took from their dead, and offer them what they request. The xenos want very little for friendship from what I now understand. Are you willing to go to war over such trivial things? Ally with these aliens against the hereteks if they are so strong with their daemon engines and heldrakes. To me, the kilometers-long Chaos ship filled with hereteks from Cyclothrathe is still the greatest threat, and we need to prepare appropriately."
"I'm not giving the aliens anything," I said angrily, feeling my light blaze around me again. "Not only were we threatened by the xenos, it turns out they were duplicitous."
"Forgive me, my beautiful tsarina, but I will say they were clever," the Mad Monk said after a long drink. "They were testing the wits and morals of a foreseen newcomer in their landscape, which is entirely understandable from a diplomatic standpoint of a civilized nation. Keeping comprehension of a language a secret is a trick that has always been employed through the empires of the multiverse, in my past and here. My suggestion: ally with the Dwemer if you need strength against the hereteks, or, simply eat the primitives in the cave and leave."
The Divine Retribution cringed angrily to hear that. It really didn't want me to eat innocent humans if they weren't aggressive with us. This majestic construct was made to protect and guide the race of its captain, and now that I knew that there were local aliens who were being aggressive with us, I was all too happy to find an excuse to eat them for fuel instead. "No. No one threatens me!" I hissed angrily, causing Rasputin to flinch. "We're sending Jinnicky out to his tower and he's going to hike back here with his army, and if the Dwemer show up, we throw Jinnicky's dudes and our psyker powers against them until we eat enough of them to regenerate and leave. Those aliens have been stuck on this planet since they got here." I thought for a few moments, tapping my fingers against the throne's armrests. "Yeah, they have an army, but if they were all that advanced, they would have spaceships by now, which they don't. I'd say all we have to do is kill and eat a few psykers from anyone who attacks us, and then, we book it out of here." I paused and felt myself consider a worst-case scenario. "I'd only consider eating the tribesmen if they decided to attack us too," I trailed off.
"Is this your final solution, meine Führerin?" Alberich asked me as he stood near Rasputin, the smallest hint of a smile pulling at the corner of his lips.
"Yes," I answered quickly and angrily. I stood from my throne, and my glow remained around my body. "So, that's that. Everyone get ready. We might have some company soon."