Chương 4: Chapter 3: The old guard and the Hollow Star

When she woke up she couldn't remember her name. However, that was unimportant. She remembered her mission, the hypno-indoctrination wouldn't let her forget, and that was enough. Cleon watched as the rather tall, fit adult woman in the pod sat up almost immediately after they had opened it, her cold blue eyes snapped open and scanned the area around her.

She frowned, her gaze traveled to the other pods where the human male was also being woken up and the conspicuously empty pair that had contained Nicole and the fallen Magos. Both their vaults emerged from their secluded spaces at roughly the same time.

"Hello, I know you are likely disoriented. You have long term cryostasis induced amnesia. Do not worry we are here to… um miss? Excuse me?" The woman had already gotten out of her pod yanking the body sensors off and walked right up to her vault. Putting her hand on the sensor to open it immediately. The naked back of the woman featured an elaborate diamond tattoo and the head of a ram. Along with several other imperial military tattoos, she had what looked to be several combat grade cybernetic implants.

Cleon found himself moments later staring down his nose at the barrel of a loaded bolt pistol.

"Where is she?" The woman asked with a growl. Cleon had good self preservation instincts and he quickly sent out the message to the magi for help. Cleon cleared his throat.

"I assume you mean Miss Nicole? The young lady that was in the pod adjacent to yours?" The woman, Lael according to the name on her vault, narrowed her eyes at Cleon.

"Where is she!" she demanded.

"A-at the moment she is likely eating in the officer's mess? Or settling into her quarters?" Cleon said holding stock still and speaking placatingly with his hands raised. As Lael chewed that over they were interrupted when the man in the other pod began to blubber and sob like a baby. His whimpering and overall pathetic, whiny, and unseemly behavior drew the attention of Cleon, Lael and the other staff. Lael wrinkled her nose but lowered the pistol and went back to getting dressed.

Her movements crisp and ingrained in her muscle memory. Cleon did his best to ignore the suit of armor and cadre of weapons within her reach. Calmly informing Lael of the overall situation while waiting for help. —--------------------------------------------------------- Location: The Warp The Hollow Star: Vanguard-Class Light Cruiser of the Star Dragons Chapter The ship violently lurched, the distant sound of metal groaning as the corridor's overhead lights flickered ominously.

"Second, Third and Fifth Scale report in. Have you secured the Port Launch Bay?" Captain Bolaar spoke into his vox.

"Affirmative sir however…" The Lieutenant of the First Scale hesitated. A deep rumbling voice chimed in "The number of operational aircraft remaining is eight. Nine if you include my personal pod."

"That is… unfortunate. What about other vehicles?" the Captain asked wearily.

"Fifteen, nineteen if you include myself and our brothers. We have deployed two sentry turrets to deal with the corrupted crew. What few we have that remain whole and uncorrupted are working to clear away wreckage and secure the bay."

"Sixth and Seventh Scale, have you secured the Starboard Launch Bay?"

"This is Sixth Scale. Negative. Starboard Launch Bay has separated from the ship. As have a majority of the starboard gun decks. Emergency bulkheads are down, auspec scans confirm it."

"Fourth Scale reporting in. The bridge and upper decks are gone. We're flying blind. All crew above deck 9 show signs of warp contamination."

"Ninth and Tenth Scale reporting in. We have secured the engineerium. Plasma Core is damaged output at 35% and likely won't maintain that long. Warp Core is functional but requires refueling, we have enough fuel on hand once refueled to transition once. The Drivemaster is heavily wounded, he reports that the ship is no longer properly shielded, the Gellar field is barely covering 40% after whatever happened blew out several of the generators. We are securing the area and request reinforcements."

"I have secured the armory and our cargo. Sixth and Seventh Scale move to reinforce the Engineerium. Fourth Scale converge on my position with whatever remaining crew you can find. We need to ensure all teams have enough ammunition for the incursions to come." The captain reports, bolter fire erupts behind him, the sound a constant companion of late.

"This is Forth Scale. Orders acknowledged sir. The Astropathic choir didn't make it." Growling slightly he considered their situation. The containment fleet had been scattered to the winds by the fall. The loss of Cadia still stung and hung heavy in their hearts.

"Can the Drivemaster steer the ship without the bridge?" he asks.

"This is Ninth Scale. The primary bridge is gone, the secondary bridge is outside the Gellar Field bubble. The Drivemaster says he can likely make some adjustments to speed and bearing but we're flying blind at the moment. The ship's external sensors are nearly all dead." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The captain paused hearing a rattling sound from across from him.

His long time friend and company librarian Astrovas had tossed a series of sigil covered bones and set a series of cards down onto the armory table and was staring at them intently. The Dragon's Bone tarot. He turned the first three cards and hummed "We have three paths ahead of us brother Captain, I can guide the way. One leads us to salvation under the wing of a great silver dragon, the second into the maw of a vile red hyena nipping at our heels, the third is certain death here in the warp.

Though I could have told you the third option without the cards. I sense many horrid abominable things circling us like a pack of orca eyeing a wounded seal." He turned his head and coughed out a small mouthful of blood, then shook his head. The captain paused, his friend's gift of psychic foresight was known to him. He removed his own helmet and approached. His heavy terminator armor caused his footfalls to echo.

The Librarian had passed out when the incident first occurred several hours before everything went to hell and even now without his helmet his eyes were bloodshot and his nose was bleeding from the minor use of his abilities.

"Brother. We shall have one attempt to escape this wretched hellscape, are you CERTAIN you can guide us?" He asked, reaching out to put an armored hand on his brother's shoulder. His steady blue eyes staring down into the straining eyes of his friend.

"My will is strong and my faith resolute. The Emperor will see us through brother." He stood leaning on his force staff.

"Good" replacing his helmet "Brothers. Prepare the warp drive. Hold fast. We are getting out of here." Then he stepped out into the charnel house of a corridor outside the armory where the rest of the First Scale veterans had been dealing with the insane, possessed and corrupted crew that had viscerally thrown themselves at the marines.

"I require an escort for brother Astrovas, he must get the Engineerium."

"I shall take him, I alone am enough." The crackling voice announced as the lumbering form of an Ironclad Dreadnought entered view, its large metal feet were caked in a vile mixture of blood and viscera.

"I merely require a replenishment of ammunition." His tone jovial. The rest of the Fourth Scale devestator squad appeared behind him moments later from the dark war torn corridor.

"But Fourth Scale can come too if they want." Brother Nemeth was only recently interred but seemed to be taking to it well. The fact they had been forced to rouse all four of their dreadnoughts spoke to the severity of their current situation.

"Well we have plenty of that here Brother Nameth. Squad form up! Brother Nameth will herald our way to the Engineerium. Protect brother Astrovas, without him we'll all be meeting the Emperor sooner than I would like." The other marines helped fully reload Brother Nemeth's Hurricane Bolter, Assault Launchers, Meltagun, one Hunter Killer Missile and someone even cleaned off his Seismic Hammer.

"It's only a kilometer away brothers. Plenty of demon kills for everyone HA HA!" Loaded with as much ammunition as they could bear the Forth Scale, Brother Nameth, Astrovas, and Captain Bolaar departed from the armory with grim determination as they walked once more into the demon infested damnation that had once been their ship. The thundering footsteps of Brother Nameth leading the way.

"By His light!"

My new room was in the officers quarters. This meant I had access to the officer's mess hall! After dropping off my vault before anything else I wanted to get something to eat. It felt like morning to me so I opted for a breakfast meal. The mess seemed to have a bit of everything on hand for what ever shift was coming in to eat. I got a few glances but seeing my Mechanicus robes most of the officers just went back to their own meals. They even had fresh fruit! Which I knew was a luxury aboard a ship.

A quick search revealed that the ship had an extensive Arboretum along with hydroponics systems to provide produce. Perhaps that was part of the reason why the air tasted so clean. I got myself some ploin juice, some slices of a little green oblong fruit that tasted a bit like cherry and banana mixed together. The main dish was a strange crunchy pastry, it had a waffle like texture but was the size of a large pancake with a savory taste. Halfway through my meal I got a ping.

Apparently there was some sort of situation going on in the cryo area with thawing out the other pods. Not my problem. Gertrud did ask me politely to send a quick little video message to her for some reason with a little script.

"Hi! I'm Tech Adept Nicole Cavalerio. Nice to meet you." Then I went a little off script by taking a bite of my pastry.

"Whatever this crunchy thing is it's yummy. Oh yeah, I'm perfectly fine. Anyway Bye!" Waving my mechatendril claw manipulator like a hand over my shoulder. That was probably good enough. Finishing my meal I gleefully scampered back to my room just in time to get informed the vault was done being installed.