"This is Von Hal Trade Escort Ferrus-219. We have entered the system known as Abegado for supply delivery. Our Auspex have not picked anything on short or long ranger, delivery to Republic's 104th battalion. We shall stay at the meeting point the Republic has requested, upon delivery, we shall submit the bill and move to next supply hub for delivery of next cargo load." the captain said, having this information written down to be taken to the astropath, it had become routine at this point.
The small group, made of a Defender Class Light Cruiser and two Sword Class Frigates, and two Imperial Transports. They were to meet with a group of Venators. The captain, Tilly Serosa had been rather use to the many strange sights of this new galaxy, but as a rogue trader, she was use to encoutering and dealing with xenos.
She had remembered her first few days. The Navigator's cried heresy, and nearly got executed if she had had only one conscious navigator left. The first warp jump nearly shook her ship apart, the Sternbound was an old ship, and a strong one for it's classification.
As they waited at the meeting point, at the specified time and place, there were no Republic ships.
"Are we at the wrong coordinates?" She asked, confused.
"Location directed by republic command states, this is the correct location, we have arrived in the correct system, and correct time frame for delivery of supply." the tech specialist said.
"Hold formation, we will wait for the arrival, the damned republic can't even keep a time table, how do they expect to win a war." She muttered.
There was a noise that beeped at an unmanned station. She looked over over, an auspex station, a secondary one that was always acting up. The Tech-priests have called the sensor array connected to the station everything from "tainted" to "cursed" but, that sensor array had always been correct in warning the ship. It was a blessing the machine cult didn't understand
"Crewmen, what does the auspex read on station #4?" Tully asked.
A man walked to the station, sitting down and examined the readings.
"High speed objects entering system, it is the Republic." the man said.
As the auspex finished acting up, 3 venator ships arrived, and began to move towards the meeting point.
"Hailing call, answering." the comms men announced.
"Captain Serosa. I am pleased to see your forces, but we must make this resupply quick. I am tasked with hunting a mysterious ship in the sector." Plo Koon, a kel dor as they were called.
"It is fine, have your hangers open and we can deliver supplies into them." Tilly said.
Station 4 began to beep loudly. Something was detected.
The hologram of the jedi began to cut out, something was happening.
"What's station 4 detecting!?" Tilly shouted.
"It's an energy readings, it's huge, a large source of energy is building near the star." the crew men said, now worried.
Solar flare? no, it's too concentrated, could it be some weapon....it was the secret weapon, it had been hiding in the system!
"Order the supply ship to close hatches and clear the system before entering warp. Have the rest move towards the energy source." Tilly ordered.
As the ship turned, they faced the soft glow of the red star, with a small outline in it.
"Auspex stations 1,2,3 and 5 can't get a read on the origin of the energy souce, the star's radiation is throwing off the readings." a crewmen said.
"Bring us in, we need to ID source, and spread wide." Tilly said.
The fleet moved slowly towards the star. They approached, before they could see the ship, one with a faint pinkish disk glowing. The Republic ships were following the Sternbound
"Abominable intelligence ship, it's large." the crew men said.
"Prepare weapon batteries." She ordered.
As the ships continued towards the large droid ship, everyone was confused, why had it not turned to face them It was presenting it's side, making itself a large target to be shot at. It even had a large target on it's side, that was glowing brighter.
"We are nearly in range." the weapons officer said.
"Prepare for battle." she ordered.
The disk flashed brighter, and launched some energy wave towards them.
"Station 3 broke through the radiation, energy readings are bleeding off that ship like crazy." a officer said.
"Prepare for impact!" Tilly ordered, gripping her command throne. As the wave reached them and passed the ships, the terminals flickered, lights flickered, the crew men with cybernetic limbs lost the ability to move their limbs, and the ship began to drift to one side.
Similar sights could be seen from the view windows, seeing the sword classes to her right had been partially hit, and now was drifting towards them with one engine still burning. To the left, the sword frigate was turning away, and the energy of the warp engines were activating.
"Energy levels are dropping, emergency power disabled. Power outages across the ship, weapon systems disabled, we are nearly dead. The enemy ship is coming this way." the crew men said.
The large ship began to open fire, first on the sword class frigates, the one attempting to escape, having it's shields down, was ripped apart by the mass of the droid's ship's cannons. The sword class blew up, exploding in a mix of real and creating a small blast that exposed the immaterium for just a second, before the second sword class received much more attention.
"Get to Life pods!" Tilly Seros ordered.
The doors were forced opened, and the crews ran to a sections of the ship with life pods. Servitors were laying on the ground, unable to move, crew men with artificial organs were struggling to survive as they experienced organ failure. Crew men struggled to move as limbs didn't seem to work.
Techpriests laid on the ground.....dead.
"Emperor Save us." a crew men said as he followed Tilly.
She climbed into a lifepod, she pulled the hatch down, as a few armsmen, a tech-acolyte carrying servo skulls, a few crew men carrying a tech priest, and a young astropath in training climbed it. The captain gripped the release handle, and pulled, she pulled hard, and then the pod released. The dark pod flying through space.
Tilly sat in the pilot seat, and tried to activate the pod, but....there was no power.
"Acolyte. I want you to try and get this powered again." she ordered.
The Acolyte did a silent prayer, unable to speak, and lacked any ceremonial supplies. A hatch was opened, before it looked at the wires.
Tilly turned, looking at the crew of her "Ship" she knew she had left.
The life pod could hold 20 people plus the pilot, and it was shaped like a large tube with movement thrusters. She had 6 arms men, 8 crew men, her self, the tech acolyte and the psycker who was rocking in their seat. The techpriest was just laying there, along with the servo skulls.
"This is going to be rough." She said.
The life pod slowed down, and with little manuvering ability, Tilly forced the pod to turn, letting them see more life pods launch, as the Droid ship focused on the light cruiser, and eventually, it was destroyed. The Reactor must have been hit, the ship exploded in a ball of light, launching the ship's wreckage in all directions. The super weapon began to fire down on the republic ships that were still being drifting, being destroyed as they drifted helplessly.
Tilly watched, feeling anger, sadness and humiliation, the Sternbound, a ship that had survived the Tyranids, the Orks, it had even survived against traitorous forces of a black crusade, but now, it was destroyed, not even able to fight back against an a single ship of a galaxy that didn't even match the ferocity of much of the galaxy they had come from.
Had the Astropath delivered the message? How many life pods had escaped? Was help on it's way? What was she to do? What was this super weapon that had killed their ship's great spirit? Many questions raced through Tilly's head, as she could only sit and wait.
