Editing The Tales of the Emperasque: Part Twelve (section)

==9-098-001-M42==
Vulkan tapped a fist on the hololith display to conceal his anger. He wanted to punch clean through it.<br>
Apparently, Wilcox had been wrong about the top speed of the Tau frigate. The damn thing had been riding their ass since they left the moon, and had been gaining on them even with Vulkan’s and Ir’Shal’s modifications. Ir’Shal and He’Stan were desperately readying the ship for battle, but it wasn’t enough. The frigate and raiders trailing it would be upon them in under an hour. They needed two to escape.<br>
Vulkan had spent his time outfitting his Terminator with the Unbound Flame. The suit was now as powerful as human science could make it, barring a few Grey Knight trinkets.<br>
Lieutenant Commander Wilcox stood and saluted when Vulkan entered the bridge, but Vulkan hadn’t noticed. He had made straight for the holo display, staring at the Tau blip as it caught up with the Swift, which was infuriatingly incapable of living up to its name.<br>
Worst of all, Ir’Shal had informed him mere minutes before that the Warp engine was operational and ready for deployment.

Wilcox walked over to where the Primarch stood and stared into the hololith as well. “Lord Vulkan, if I may?”<br>
“Speak,” Vulkan said.<br>
“We could give the frigate one hell of a pounding if we had to, sir. They won’t take us without a fight, if it comes to it.”<br>
“They’re not looking to destroy us, Commander, they’re looking to board us,” Vulkan said angrily. “We were within range of their prow guns when we were leaving orbit. They didn’t fire because the alien was aboard. They’re trying to retake him.”<br>
“And since the first thing they’ll be able to hit is the engines…”<br>
“They may as well capture the rest of us when they get a chance, yes,” Vulkan growled.<br>
“Well…sir, we may not have to destroy them to elude them,” Wilcox said.<br>
Vulkan peered down at the Naval officer, his curiosity piqued. “What do you mean?”<br>
“We do have a teleportorium aboard. We could teleport a warhead aboard their ship if we get their shields down,” Wilcox said.<br>
“Or something even more destructive,” Vulkan said, as Wilcox’s statement kicked off a new idea.<br>
“Sir?”<br>
“Me.”

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” Ir’Shal said, staring at Vulkan as he re-donned his armor.<br>
“Granted.”<br>
“You’re frakking crazy.”<br>
“Granted.”<br>
“Sir, we have NO IDEA what the layout of the enemy ship is. For all we know, we could teleport you into a solid wall.”<br>
“Also true, but consider,” Vulkan said, as a pair of armor servitor clipped the vambraces of his armor into place. “They have to have a hangar somewhere. And we know my teleport homer works from the surface of a planet to orbit. So there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t work here.”<br>
“And yet, sir, you will be alone. It nearly damned He’Stan to teleport outside of Terminator armor, and it was one-way. Teleporting you three times in one day-”<br>
“After ten thousand years in the Warp, brother, nothing in a careful teleportation worries me,” Vulkan snapped. “Now return to the bridge and remove the safeties of all torpedo weapons. When I give the signal, bring their shields down and make for the Oort cloud. When you reach the point where you can jump out, teleport me to safety and jump.”<br>
Ir’Shal stared at Vulkan, struggling to find words. None came. “Aye, sir. May the Emperor’s grace be with you.”<br>
“I’d settle for his raw firepower,” Vulkan muttered.

“Shas’Vre, the Imperial destroyer is very rapidly decelerating; their torpedo volleys have drained our forward shields to minimum,” one of the bridge officers called out. The ship’s commander leaned forward in her seat and squeezed the armrests.<br>
“All batteries, fire for effect on my mark, target the Warp drive. We will recover Shas’O Fap.”<br>
“Acknowledged, Shas’Vre,” the Gunnery Officer said, starting in on the targeting computer. The ship’s Shas’Vre smirked.<br>
“I don’t know what Fap was thinking when he followed you, Imperial, but we’ll get him back.”<br>
“Really?” a horrifyingly deep voice asked. The Shas’Vre started and tried to rise, but-<br>
A lancing pain in his chest halted his rise. The Shas’Vre looked down in stupefied astonishment to see a blood-drenched spike erupt from his torso. He looked at it dumbly before it glowed an acrid blue, and then there was agony, darkness, what-<br>
The Gunnery Officer scrambled for his sidearm, leveled it at the intruder, but the leviathan raised one empty hand, his fingers twitched, the world was burning-<br>
A pair of security officers at the back of the bridge leveled their pulse carbines and fired, but they may as well have been spitting at the giant, because their shots vanished in his scaled cloak; he withdrew the spike from the back of the Shas’Vre’s chair and pointed it at the two men, and there was screaming, the sound of a million daemons, metal shearing, and the end of the world-<br>
“Counter-boarders to the bridge! Counter-boarders to the bridge!” the comms operator screamed, vaulting his console for cover, but the monster wasn’t done; it leveled its arms and blue flame leaped forth-

Vulkan lowered his arms and surveyed his devastated surroundings. Flames were eating away merrily at bodies and computers around the bridge, and the chair in front of him was a carbonized wreck. The sound of bridge activity had died away to nothing. He nodded. A good day’s work, unfinished.<br>
“Swift, this is Drake. The bridge is secured. Cease fire, all batteries, and divert all power to engines, teleporter capacitors, and shields. I will be along presently.”<br>
“Drake, Swift here, acknowledged. Well done, my Lord. According to our sensors, there is a large contingent of Fire Warriors, including a Crisis unit, approaching your position in a cargo lift on your deck. You’ll have to move quickly to evade them.”<br>
“And if I wanted to greet them?” Vulkan asked, walking off the bridge.<br>
“You would continue down this corridor as far as you could, until you encountered two large, pressed-steel doors set into the bulkhead with a control panel next to them, and wait about eighteen seconds, my Lord.”<br>
Vulkan sprinted down the corridor, as best he could in Terminator armor, the Mantle billowing behind him. “On it. It will feel good to kill something that doesn’t respawn.” He skidded to a halt at the end of the corridor and primed the Song of Entropy.<br>
“Twelve seconds…four seconds…” the Swift’s comm officer read aloud.<br>
The door sprang open, and a group of Fire Warriors within started to fan out, before realizing that the threat was right there in front of them. Vulkan was more prepared, engaging the Song. Instantly, the nearest few Fire Warriors flew apart at the seams, casting the inside of the lifts blue with their cobalt blood.

A Crisis suit shouldered its way past the carnage and opened up with its pulse gatling, but it was too close in for anything but a spray of fire, no room for precision, and Vulkan sidestepped its clumsy attack to drive the Ballista into his neck.<br>
The last few Fire Warriors had more sense, diving out of the lift and to the ground, firing from the floor. Vulkan incinerated one with the Gauntlet, before unclasping the Spear and turning to the other, sweeping it through the unfortunate alien.<br>
“Lord Vulkan, all contacts in the lift neutralized. Are you injured?” the Swift comms officer asked.<br>
“My armor is singed at the left knee joint, but operational,” Vulkan said, checking his HUD. “The Unbound Flame is undamaged and functioning properly.”<br>
“The lift you are facing can reach the deck with the shield generators, we believe, but they will have locked it down,” the officer reported, no doubt glancing at an intelligence report on the Tau starships.<br>
“Not a problem,” Vulkan said, lifting the severed arm of the Fire tem leader and pressing it against the panel in the lift. The doors slid shut and the lift cage began its descent. “I have a volunteer here.”<br>
“…Aye, sir. The lowest level is your destination.”<br>
“Acknowledged, I’m on my way.”<br>
“May I make a recommendation, sir?<br>
“Affirmative,” Vulkan said, eyeing the hologram of the elevator shaft to observe his progress.

“Stop one deck early and blow your way down, through the deck plating. I can tell you approximately where the security teams are massing, and if you use explosives to blast through the deck above them, you’ll kill most without a fight.”<br>
“Wise advice. I’m getting out in four decks. I will have to improvise on the weapons.” Vulkan hit the button for the deck above his destination. “Any crew on this deck?”<br>
“Many. Mostly Air Caste engineers and crew, by precedent.”<br>
The doors slid open silently, and their single startled guard was quickly dispatched. A few startled crewers in the distance saw the commotion and ran for cover, though a few brave souls drew service sidearms and fired on Vulkan as he advanced. Vulkan triggered the flamer, sending gouts of flame down the corridors at his attackers, and most scampered back into cover. Vulkan’s HUD suddenly lit up with a data burst from the Swift, highlighting optimal placement of the breeching charge, if he could find one.<br>
Vulkan glanced around the corridor, noting it to be mostly crew quarters and a few equipment lockers, though one door looked promising, marked as it was with a pictorial fire. Vulkan walked over to the door and pried it open, smiling at the bounty beyond: a rack of compressed oxygen tanks and a welding frame.

Vulkan wasted no time, conscious that the entire crew of the ship was probably on their way to reinforce the defenders around the vital systems. He grabbed the welding frame and two oxygen tanks and dropped them on the decking above the Tau ambush, then unceremoniously stabbed the decking with the Spear, carving a hole around them. They dropped down amongst the Tau warriors below, scattering with a horrendous crash. Vulkan aimed down the hole and hosed down the pile of welding kit with the Gauntlet, igniting the welding propellant. The explosion cast a wall of oxygenated flames over the densely packed group of defenders, killing most in seconds. Vulkan followed the trail of fire down, landing heavily on the scorched deck plating, and casting about with the Spear.<br>
A pair of Fire Warriors setting up a portable barricade at the entrance to the shield generator room dropped their burden and opened fire, scattering pulse rifle shots over Vulkan’s armor. Vulkan took one round across the helmet and snarled, his attention dragged away. A quick assessment of the threat revealed that they were too far away for even the enhanced Gauntlet to reach, so he dipped his hand into a pocket and yanked out a frag grenade, primed it, and tossed. The two Fire Warriors ducked back behind a lowering bulkhead into the shield generator room, and the grenade detonated harmlessly against the metal sheet. Vulkan polished off the last standing Fire Warrior at his feet and charged at the metal wall, slamming into it like an autocannon round. The blast wall buckled and bent at the site of impact. Vulkan snarled and drew back, slicing through the metal with the Spear, carving a line across it above his head. He drew another line just in from the walls, weakening the metal again, then reared back and slammed in again, barreling through.

The shield technicians and the Fire Warrior guards stared at the monster that had just demolished their last defense in shock, then reacted, opening fire on Vulkan from all around the room. Some clung to catwalks in the multideck room, firing down from above, while the closer ones scrambled for cover and others yet ran for the exit, trying to make it past Vulkan on his way in.<br>
Vulkan, however, wasn’t interested in merely trading fire with the crew. Instantly his eyes were drawn to the generator itself, a blue, disturbingly organic-looking machine in the center of the room, with a single, massive power conduit running into it from the ceiling. The machine was surrounded by a serpent’s nest of smaller cables. Vulkan didn’t take the time to be deliberate, merely charging through the center of the room, hosing down anyone who got close enough with the Gauntlet, keeping a wary eye on the fuel counter.<br>
A sharp shriek of ion jets suddenly split the noise of battle. Vulkan looked up to see a pair of large Crisis Suits drop from the ceiling, landing between him and his objective. One sported a pair of pulse gatlings, but the other was different: it had a brace of huge rail cannons on its back, and was clamping its feet onto the ground for stability as soon as it landed.<br>
Cannons that size could threaten even a Terminator. Vulkan changed course, running behind the nearest console, then slamming his hands down on its sides to halt his momentum and leaping over it, just as the larger Suit discharged its cannons into the terminal, blasting it apart. Vulkan tossed a krak grenade from his belt over to where the Crisis Suits stood, and the one with the gatling pulsed his jets, lifting several meters off the ground and backwards, nearer to the generator.

The other did not manage to disengage his foot locks in place and exploded, casting bits of himself and his machine over the room. The gatling one suddenly flared his jets again and launched forward, landing atop one of the catwalks overhead, raining fire down on Vulkan.
But now Vulkan’s path was clear.<br>
The Salamander Primarch dropped the spear and leaped, his power-armor enhanced muscles propelling him almost a meter upwards, and he triggered the Song of Entropy. The wave of sonic destruction rippled forth, washing over the metal of the catwalk and rending it. The Crisis suit tumbled off, the pilot desperately firing off the jets, but too late. Vulkan landed heavily and extended the Thunder Ballista, impaling the Crisis Suit neatly in the middle. The pilot’s scream of horror and agony ended suddenly as Vulkan discharged the Ballista, lighting the suit on fire and electrifying it. With a heave, Vulkan tossed it into the huge generator and triggered both of his ranged weapons, howing down the massive generator with sound and flame.<br>
Gouts of electric sparks erupted from the power conduit as a blast from the Song shredded it, and the generator shuddered, shutting down under the relentless attack. Vulkan didn’t hesitate a moment longer, reopening his comm. “Swift, Drake here, lift lift lift!” The world outside his armor bent and twisted, as Vulkan crossed the tiny distance to the destroyer in the Warp, and landed on the deck of the hangar, where Tu’Shan was waiting expectantly.<br>
“My Lord?” he asked, eyeing the battle damage to the suit.<br>
“Mission accomplished,” Vulkan said shortly. “Swift, jump us out of here!”

“And the prisoner?” Wilcox asked, as the sound of the Warp drive filtered through the ship, and reality took a break outside the Gellar Field.
Vulkan looked down at the hole the Crisis Suit had punched clean through his armor when firing from the catwalk, and at the clotting blood it had drawn. “He can walk home.”<br>
“Affirmative,” Wilcox said grimly.<br>
Fap sat against the wall of his cell, fuming. They had jumped. His ships had failed to rescue him, and now he would be a ‘guest’ of these savage apes’ Inquisition? He resolved to die before he let that happen.<br>
At that moment, the guard outside his cell stirred, listening to the feed in his helmet. He nodded and murmured something into his vox, then chuckled. He turned to face the Tau prisoner. “All right, ‘sir,’ you can go.” Fap blinked.<br>
“Go?”<br>
“Yes, we’re done in this system. You’re free to leave,” the guard said, opening the cell door.<br>
“Well, that was unexpected,” Fap said, bemused. “Perhaps you Imperials understand something of compassion after all.”<br>
“Really?” the guard asked lightly, suddenly lashing out with the butt of his rifle. The stock slammed into Fap’s jaw, knocking him cold.

Fap stirred against the cold metal of the room, his mind reeling. The Imperial trash had DARED to hit him? He would show them…where was he?
Fap slowly stood, taking in his surroundings. He was enclosed between two massive metal doors, with warning symbols scrawled on them in the human tongue. He looked at them, bewildered. “Where the hell am I?” he asked under his breath.<br>
Actually, that was more or less an accurate appraisal. With no warning at all, one of the doors suddenly lifted into the ceiling, and the air rushed out of the room, sucking Fap with it. Fap flailed, losing his footing, sucked out of the ship…into the Warp. For an instant, the ship flickered by, then he was out of the Gellar field, in the raw stuff of the Warp itself. Something huge and sinuous slithered around him, grasping him by the waist, and Fap screamed. A voice, more terrible and arousing than any he had ever felt , whispered in his ears. “Ooooh…look at that arm. My goodness, I can put that to use…”<br>
“GET AWAY FROM ME, DAEMON!” Fap squealed, struggling against the thing’s sensuous touch.<br>
“Are you sure you want that?” it asked, giggling coquettishly.<br>
“Well…no, actually…” Fap’s voice trailed off, as an impossible pleasure floated through him.<br>
“Good…we’re going to have so very much fun together…” the creature giggled, staring into Fap’s eyes…and suddenly there was nothing left of Shas’O Kes’Y Fap’Tau.

“So, may I ask you something, Emperor?” Isha said, sitting in her usual place at the conference table. Most of the High Lords were absent today, preparing for something or other elsewhere, something to do with moving supplies for the reconstruction of the lost hives.
“SURE, WHAT IS IT?” the Emperor roared.<br>
“Whose idea was it to forge this treaty?” Isha asked, glancing over the other people at the table.<br>
“MINE. WHY?”<br>
“Because none of your Senators think it’s a good idea except the ones who stand to profit from it personally,” she said, glaring coolly at the Inquisitor and Commodore Rhodes specifically.<br>
“WATCH YOUR TONE, PLEASE, ISHA, WE’RE TRYING TO LAY A GROUNDWORK OF RESPECT HERE,” the Emperor roared reprovingly.<br>
“Respect?” Isha stared at the Throne icon incredulously. “Very well. Then, in that spirit, I think we should move on to a topic that so far, we’ve all been assiduously avoiding.”<br>
“THAT BEING?”<br>
Taldeer nodded grimly. “The Exodites.”<br>
“OKAY. WHAT I’M PREPARED TO OFFER IS THAT ANY AND ALL INQUISITORIAL AND MECHANICUS TEAMS WORKING TO COLONIZE OR EVICT MAIDEN AND EXODITE WORLDS WILL ABANDON THE PROJECTS, AS LONG AS THEY ARE GIVEN TIME TO WITHDRAW CLEANLY, WITHOUT SACRIFICING MEN OR EQUIPMENT…BUT THAT IS RECIPROCAL. NO MORE CRAFTWORLD COLONY FLEETS SHOWING UP TO DEMAND HUMANS ABANDON THE ONLY WORLDS THEY HAVE EVER KNOWN, NO MORE CORSAIR RAIDS ON UNDEFENDED COLONY SHIPS, NOTHING.”<br>
“I suppose a cessation of conflict over colony rights would benefit us both,” Taldeer said, “but that would require that we give you the coordinates over every single Maiden world and Exodite world. Can you understand my recalcitrance in that regard?”

“OF COURSE I CAN. I ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE EXODITES WHO ARE ACTIVELY OPPOSED TO CRAFTWORLD ELDAR. I WOULDN’T HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.”<br>
Isha nodded slowly, casting a glance at Taldeer, who had steepled her fingers and was clearly lost in thought. “Then perhaps we could adjourn, while Farseer Taldeer discusses this with the rest of the Farseers who have convened on Ulthwé?”<br>
“SURE, LET’S TAKE AN HOUR. OH, AND ISHA, IF WE COULD SPEAK FOR A MOMENT?”<br>
“Very well,” Isha said, as the other delegates filed out. As soon as the door closed, the hologram of the Throne icon switched off, and the Emperor spoke directly into her mind.<br>
“ISHA, WHY IS LOFN HERE?”<br>
“Good question,” she thought back. “I suspect that her mother wants her here for her power to play its role.”<br>
“SO SHE KNOWS. AND YOU KNOW.”<br>
“I didn’t when I got here. I suspected. Now I know for sure.”<br>
“AND WHAT ACTIONS WILL YOU TAKE?”<br>
“To what end should actions be taken? She doesn’t even know what her power is. Furthermore, it seems harmless. She passively soothes souls around her, removing hostility.”<br>
“IS THAT WHAT IT IS? REALLY? INTERESTING. I KNOW OF NO SUCH POWER.”<br>
“Nor I. But her mother is a Farseer, and her father has known some of the greatest traumas a human soul can know and function still. I am not surprised.”<br>
“WELL SHE DOESN’T KNOW SHE HAS IT AND SENDING HER AWAY WOULD ANGER HER PARENTS…BUT I DON’T LIKE THE IDEA OF A PERSON AT THAT TABLE THAT HAS A POWER THAT CAN CONTROL THE OUTCOME OF ALL THIS.”

“That is not under your command,” Isha supplied.<br>
“WELL, YES. UNDERSTAND THAT I FACED OPPOSITION FROM MY OWN SONS OVER THIS. I DON’T BLAME TALDEER FOR GUESSING THAT THE NOBLES WHO RUN THINGS WHEN I’M AWAY TO BE EVEN MORE HOSTILE. BUT I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH SUBTERFUGE. I HAVE GONE TO GREAT LENGTHS TO ENSURE THAT MY SENATORS DO NOT APPROACH THIS TREATY UNDER FALSE PRETENSE. YOU SHOULD NOT PERMIT LESS OF YOUR OWN PEOPLE.”<br>
Isha didn’t like hearing that, but chose the diplomatic response. “I agree. I will speak with Taldeer.”<br>
“THANK YOU.” The Emperor severed their link and stewed over the information he had been given. “SPEAK WITH HER. RIGHT.” He briefly debated reaching out to Lofn, but decided against it: if she really didn’t know about her power, he didn’t want to frighten her.