Warhounds Loose

The empyrean outside Lykaina's hull swirled in a concussion of impossible colors and shapes as the World Eaters battlebarge led its flock through the warp stream, the currents coalescing in an instant before exploding in a prismatic display of incomprehensible madness that threatened to envelop the fleet with each instant that elapsed. The navigators of each ship struggled to keep contact with one another through the storm, like children clasping hands in the blinding darkness as unseen things cloyed at their grasp with hateful temptations whispered in the psychic ether.

Many of the navigators had already succumb to the lure along the journey, their tenuous grasp on sanity finally snapping like a taught cord before their ships winked out into the warp, the chaos around them swallowing their vessels with a greedy hunger. The imperial armada support craft that had once made up the exploratory fleet were first among such victims as the group broke off from its noble crusade to torment and pillage at the legion's delight, the human crews vanishing as Gellar fields flickering ominously before finally releasing with a burst; their ships disappearing from the cogitator proximity registries of the shuttered ships around them. Those pilots who remained were of seemingly different stock, their astartes masters keen to leave them to their arcane work of guiding the fleet to their next island of humanity ripe for despoil.

"How soon, admiral."

It was a statement with no question, the legionnaire's intolerant growl betraying his eagerness to be free of the confines of his ship. They had been in transit for weeks with nothing but the pits to amuse themselves as the mortal crew toiled. The humans that had lived this long on board had learned to avoid their astartes masters at every opportunity lest they find their frail account added to the gladiatorial meat grinder where their life would end as a brief distraction in the bloody carnage.

"The navigators report a break in the storm, lord," Captain Jorvund answered in a cowed tone, "In the periphery of the Cushing sector, if the stellar charts are still correct."

"The empyrean appears to be guiding us somehow," he added quickly, "We should make for the clearing and have warp translation within the day." The human slumped limply into the command seat, careful to avoid provoking the astartes master of the fleet any further.

Acteon stood immobile in the bulk of his power armor beside the admiral's command throne, his station as First Captain of the LXXII Chapter and master of the fleet having little need for the paltry chair. His bioengineered mind gave him more strategic acumen than the ship's cogitator's could offer him and his neural uplinks to the fleet's nurosphere made the bridge's interfaces redundant. His place was standing above his mortal chaff as a reminder of whom the true masters of humanity had become.

The grill of his MkIII helm squawked a digital snort that caused Jorvund to flinch, the First Captain's pearlescent armor already turning away to make his leave. Acteon was speaking to his captains, his commands to make ready for translation broadcasted by the battlebarge's neuronet spires across the fleet. Below decks across the astartes vessels klaxons blared and laborgang leaders beat their chaingangs into action to begin the ponderous process of readying the massive ships for translation. As mortals broke their backs and cowered in the dark holds, the legionnaires roared in excitement across the arenas and sparring circles of each ship.

War was coming once again, and it mattered not who's blood was spilled only so that it flowed.

World Eaters LXXII Chapter Crusade Escort Fleet

Formerly of the 386th Exploratory Fleet

Lykaina Astartes Battlebarge

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Parataxis Dictator Class Heavy Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Syntaxis Dictator Class Heavy Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Nemeas Murder Class Heavy Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Delphis Murder Class Heavy Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Eapophis Strike Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

             

Dynamis Strike Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Apobasis Strike Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

             

Ephebos Endeavour Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Hedeia Endeavour Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Leontis Endeavour Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Tryphousa Endurance Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Hegeso Endurance Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++

Nikeso Endurance Class Light Cruiser

++STATUS: ACTIVE++