Mechanicus Ark Ship Sol Invictus

Van Eck was jarred from his contemplative state as warning sigilla began to stream across his visual displays. He watched as the warnings quickly changed from amber to orange to a threatening red. His feeds also indicated that the fleet had dropped out of the void and back into real space. The readings were strange though. The ships sensor array indicated that the fleet hadn’t just dropped out of the void but had been thrown out by something akin to a massive warp storm. He flashed a query to the astral navigators, whose responsibility it was to guide ships safely through the warp, but there was only silence. A few seconds later Marcus Aronvold’s voice chimed in his ear.

“Lord Explorator, as you are undoubtedly aware we have emerged back into real space. The Neptune’s Tide and the Iron Duke have also emerged with us. The Dawning of Orion is currently unaccounted for. None of the ships present can raise their astral navigators. I have sent an engineering crew and a Breacher team to the navigation deck with orders to run a full auspex scan and if safe, gain access to the navigation dome” said Aronvold

“Thank you, captain, I will join you there” flashed Arland already in the corridor and moving towards the navigation deck.

Arland checked and found one of the real space navigators was on line and asked her “navigator do you have a fix on our current location?”

“Lord we are still trying to triangulate our position, but the navigational cogitators are having…..difficulty….finding points of reference. At this point the only thing we know for certain is we are not where we should be. Without the beacon readings from the astral navigators it will take time.

“Keep working on it and notify me the moment you have anything”

“Yes my Lord” chimed the navigator.

The doors of elevator Van Eck had been riding in opened onto the navigation deck and he could see the flares of laser torches at the far end of the corridor leading to the dome.

As he approached Aronvold turned to him “They are almost through the locks”. He said.

“Readings?” Asked Van Eck but Porter shook his head. “Nothing”

The last locking bar was finally cut through and the flares of the laser torches died away as the door cycled open.

The Breacher team moved to the fore, weapons raise. The room illuminated by the blue of the light from their vision lenses and the reaction chambers of their weapons. After a brief period the team Sergeant called “clear”.

Arland and Aronvold entered the chamber as the lights came up. The four navigators were all still reclining on their couches and jacked into their navigation units, but all were very dead. Blood had poured from ears, noses and where augmetics had been implanted into their heads, pooling on their couches and running onto the floor.

Mercy’s image appeared in Arland’s visual display. Calmly she asked “what’s the situation?” Arland sent her a visual feed of the room.

Moments later Mercy entered the chamber, escorted by a small swam of servo-skulls which detached themselves from her and started gathering samples and making recordings of the grizzly scene. A short time later several medical servitors also entered the room and commenced their allocated tasks.

"Explorator…..I’ve just received reports of crew members being found dead and displaying injuries similar to these” indicated the captain. The reports and images began to run down Arland’s and Mercy’s feeds as They were forwarded through, five in total. “There are also a number of crew members exhibiting similar injuries and who have been incapacitated to a greater or lesser degree.”

Van Eck pulled up the dead crew members info files. “Two where sanctioned psykers and the others had some degree of psychic abilities.”

“Emperor no!” whispered Mercy. Arland looked over at her. “Go” but she was already heading towards the elevator at speed. Several of her servo-skulls had broken off from what they were doing and sped after her.

Aronvold stared after the departing Mercy and then looked over at Van Eck who just said “later.”

Van Eck and the captain left the servitors and the servo-skulls to do their work and made their way back to the bridge. An image of the RSN Van Eck have communicated with earlier appeared in his feed. “Well?”

“Lord Explorator we are still to pinpoint our exact position but we believe we may have an approximate location”. She hesitated.

“Go on please navigator” said Arland growing impatient.

“Lord, I believe we may be out beyond the Eastern fringe, way out in fact, on the far side of an area of space known as the Damocles gulf.” said the RSN in a rush.

“That would put us on the opposite side of the Galaxy to where we should be” stated Van Eck. “Can you explain to me how you have reached your conclusion?”

“The nearest match to our immediate star fields, that the navigational systems can identify, come from another Adeptus Mechanicus Exploration ship the “Lands End” which charted large parts of the Eastern fringe in M35.” stated the RSN. “The reason we cannot be more certain of our position from these charts is that the stars are more advanced in their orbit than they should be if only M1.5 has passed.”

Arland digested that piece of information and found he didn’t like it very much.

“Keep on it RSN, I need to know exactly where and it appears more importantly, when we are”.

Mercy’s image appeared in his visual display, her demeanour grim. “Two dead, the Epistolary and the Codicier. The Lexican is in a coma but at least he’s alive. I’m yet to establish the full extent of the damage done to him.” I have also commenced the cycle of awakening for their Apothecary. I’m sure he will want to recover the gene seed and he will be vital if the Lexican is to survive.

“Awaken their commander also. He needs to be made aware of the situation” said Van Eck

“And what exactly is the situation? Do we know anything further?” asked Mercy.

Arland outlined what the RSN suspected and his concerns.

Mercy just shook her head. “I should have stayed on Mars”

“Lord Magos” called Aronvold. “The Dawning of Orion has just dropped out of warp”

“Thank the Omnissiah, finally some good news” sighed Arland.