1 114 467 M36. – Bridge of the Ark cruiser Sol Invictus - Adeptus Mechanicus exploration fleet Honos – Neptune LaGrange point, Sol.

“My lord Explorator, all fleet ships report leaving N.L 44 and are making their appointed speed towards the translation point.”

Explorator Magos Arland Van Eck flashed his acknowledgement back via the pick feed to the first officer of the bridge.

“How long to the translation point?” flashed Van Eck to the real space navigator.

“360 seconds at …….Mark.” replied the navigator.

Van Eck already knew the answer, as he did with most things about the fleets activity, as the data scrolled constantly down his visual displays and flowed in through his neural implants. Never the less, he was constantly monitoring the bridge crew to make sure they stayed on their toes or whatever appendages they used.

“Do you wish to address the fleet before translation?” asked the ship’s Captain Marcus Aronvold.

“If I must” thought Van Eck and flashed an affirmative. After a brief moment, images of the commanders of the other three ships which comprised the exploration fleet appeared on the holo table.

“Captains, before we make the translation to warp space in around 242 seconds, I wanted to say…..for the love of the Omnissiah, no one get lost on the way” “that is all”  

For a second every captain stared at Van Eck before bursting out in laughter. Then one by one their images winked out.

“Stirring stuff” a voice said in his feed. A moment later Clementina Mercy, Magos Biologics of the exploration fleet appeared on the holo table. 

“I hate making pointless speeches.” “Are your new charges ready for the translation?”

“Yes” replied Mercy simply. “You do realise if the Inquisition finds out, it will be the death of us both.”

“You’re not the first to say that to me.” commented Van Eck

“Yes, who was the most recent one to say that to you?” “Your Mentor wasn’t it?” asked Mercy. “What was it?” “If I don’t get rid of you, you’ll kill us both with your heresy!”

“Something like that. Well it’s a good thing that we’ll be well out beyond the Ghoul Stars should the mechanicum’s activities become known to them” Said Van Eck

“I’m not sure if I’d like to be the Inquisitor who asks Archmagos Cawl to explain himself” said Mercy.

“I’m sure the Archmagos has already vectored in the High lords finding out about his creations” “There will be some threats and counter threats and there will be a face saving gesture from both sides but I’m sure in the end the Archmagos will get to keep his new army” replied Van Eck.

Captain Aronvold chimed in Van Eck’s ear, “Lord explorator 30 seconds to immaterium.”

Van Eck flashed his confirmation and watched as Mercy’s image flicked out as the Orationis Enim Viatorem , the prayer for safe passage through the warp, boomed out over the loud hailers.

And now thought Van Eck, the journey truly begins.

Explorator Arland Van Eck

By Adeptus Machanicus standards Arland Van Eck was young, very young. At only 176 years Terran standard, he was the youngest Magos ever to be raised to Dominus and by far the youngest to be given command of an exploration fleet, all be it a small one. The other obvious thing was, unlike most other devotees of the machine god, Arland had mostly maintained his human appearance and more importantly, a large part of his humanity. 

Born on Ganymede,  he had come to the attention of a recruitment aide for Dominus Ryal Voland who’s cyber forge was located on holy Mars. At the age of 22, his work with robotics and cybernetics had become known as some of the best in the system, if not the imperium. But unlike so many of his contemporaries his work was new and even revolutionary. Not some rehash of others work but an actual spark of ingenuity. So young Arland was offered a position of apprenticeship to Voland and after accepting, transferred his work to her forge on Mars.

It soon became obvious to Voland that Arland’s work, partially in cybernetics, bordered on genius. His work on the new cybernetic implants for Voland’s Skitarii soldiers increased the survival rate of those undergoing augmentation from 55% to over 85%. Arland’s new cybernetics not only increased the Skitarii’s chance of surviving their enhancement but increased their overall strength, speed and stamina. Voland certainly saw the commercial applications for these new enhancements and soon she was receiving orders for vast quantities of Arland’s new cybernetic designs from other forges both on Mars and forges from outside Sol.

It was during this period, working across cybernetics, that he first encountered the Magos Biologics Clementina Mercy, an acolyte of the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl. Working alongside Mercy gave Van Eck an insight into the biological that enabled him to achieve a greater level of success with his augmentations that had not been previously possible.

Arland advanced at an astonishing rate through the forge hierarchy. His brilliance was recognised across the red planet and beyond and even resulted with an audience with the Archmagos during one of his brief respites from the assimilation of information. After the audience, Cawl offered Van Eck a place in his retinue but he declined, preferring to stay with his mentor. Not long after his 95^th year, he was elevated to Magos.

Magos Biologic Clementina Mercy and
her cyber Griffons Vulcan and Juno

 It had only been in the last few years that Van Eck had had time in his schedule to look back on his other love, robotics. Van Eck had been over to robotics engineering many times over the intervening years and have started looking into expanding the abilities of the Kastelan class battle automaton. Given the very limited available information on robotics, Van Eck’s work progressed at a reasonable rate but by his own standards, it seemed agonisingly slow. It was when he attempted to engage the Data-smiths with his ideas in reprogramming the Kastelans that he met his first impediment. The Data-smiths saw Van Eck as trying to give the Kastelans more autonomy which in their eyes was tantamount to giving them independent thought. Van Eck was called before the council of Magos Cybernetica to explain his actions. 

After outlining his plans and achievements to the councillors, he was shocked when he was told that he was to cease his experiments immediately and destroy all his files and to hand the robots in his charge over to the Data-smiths for reprogramming. 

Arland thought that either he or the council had misunderstood. He attempted to restate his intent but was cut off by the head of the council who told Van Eck if he failed to comply immediately he would face a charge of heresy.

Van Eck was appalled. He had no intention of stopping his work let alone destroying it! Didn’t these fools see how much the imperium would benefit improving the productivity of robots? Arland knew of the laws that forbid the creation and use of artificial intelligence but his work only expanded the capabilities of robots, it didn’t give them independent thought.

Dominus Ryal Voland was informed of the outcome of the council review and was directed to make sure that its edicts were carried out immediately. Ryal would normally have been part of the council but it was deemed that she could not be impartial in making a decision where a Magos from her forge was involved. Both Voland and Mercy visited Arland in his study early in the evening period and found him hard at work entering data into his personal cogitator.

“I hope you aren’t working what I think you are working on” said Voland looking as quizzical as it was possible to be for one with so many cybernetics implants hiding her face. Van Eck shrugged.

“The council has informed me of their decision and their required actions” said Ryal. “And they have directed me to ensure that they are carried out”

“You aren’t going to abide by them are you” said Mercy. It was a statement not a question.

“No” said Arland simply.

“Cawl’s balls Arland!” said Ryal. “Do you want to be executed for heresy!” “For the Omnisire’s sake these matters are serious.” “You can’t just ignore them and hope they will evaporate.”

“I refuse to be judged and dictated to by fools” said Arland.

“In your mind they may appear to be fools but they are powerful and not as foolish as you think.” “They do not make these judgements without reasons …..or ulterior motivates” stated Ryal.

Arland looked up at this. “Ulterior motives?”

“Arland, you are causing problems for a number of the council members, most of whom are many centuries older than you and have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.” “In a relatively short space of time you have made astonishing advances in areas that have been stagnant for millennia.”said Ryal. “And this in turn, has caused rumblings on Terra”. “Some in the Terran council are asking why these advancements could not have been achieved centuries ago and why it has been done by a relative novice and not by a senior member of the forges.” You have stirred the stagnant pool and the big old creatures living in it are not happy about it.” “And now these advancements in robotics, which are quite remarkable by the way, has given them the opportunity they were looking for” said Ryal.

“And there for your logical conclusion is……..?” Asked Mercy, her head mockingly tilted slightly to one side.

“I’m being manipulated” said Arland quietly. “They knew I wouldn’t stop my work and that would give them the excuse”. “Looks like I’m the only fool.”

Arland looked over at his onetime mentor “what do you suggest?”

Ryal looked at him for awhile and said “I think it’s time for a career change, because if I don’t get rid of you, you’ll get us both killed with your heresy”.

From the observation dome Dominus Ryal Voland watched through her augmented sight until the four ships were no more than tiny specks of star dust. The four ships had cost her a reasonable fortune and many favours. But then, Arland’s advances and discoveries had made her several reasonable fortunes over the years. The Ark ship Sol Invictus she had had commissioned some years previous with the thought that this day would come. She had been hoping it would take a little longer to arrive though. The other three had to be purchased “off the dock” so to speak. A necessity of haste. Still, it had taken almost a year to make all the necessary preparations and assembled the small exploration fleet.

The hardest part was assembling the crews for the ships and the astropaths. The Skitarii and Sicarians had not been a problem. What had surprised her was when she had called for volunteers to go on the expedition, every single one of the Skitarii and Sicarian commanders had come forward. Ryal had forgotten how popular Arland had been with the cybers because of the advancements he’d gifted them. Another surprise had been the data-smith Sylus Molt. Molt had requested to be included in the expedition. He had brought with him two of his apprentices and six of his Kastelan charges. Initially his request to be included had worried Ryal. She had thought him to be an informant or an assassin for the council, all be it, not a very subtle one. During the “interview” Ryal had asked why? Molt had just said that he knew he had to. Further digging found that he was disliked by the cybernetica almost as much as Arland for his “views”.

Domitar 13E "Mortis"

As a parting gift and knowing his love of robots, Ryal had managed to procure for Arland two decommissioned Domitar Class Battle-automata for him to experiment with. While these monsters were over 10,000 years old, they had been reduced to little more than statues after the laws governing artificial intelligence had been passed, she was sure Arland would find a use for them.

But it was the final item Ryal had managed obtain which was the one she was most pleased with. Ryal had succeeded in securing the contract of the Knight Conrad Heartland and his household. The retinue consisted not only Conrad and his Knight Warden but also his twin daughters, Rose and Ruby who each guided one of the smaller, but still deadly, Armiger Knights. Both were fiercely competitive and their abilities belied their age.

Now watching the trails of the four ships finally disappear from her enhanced sight, Ryal Voland felt a strange sense of …..melancholy? But underlying this was also a feeling of what she could only describe as dread. Ryal heard the doors to the observatory open and the clicking of metal on metal as someone approached. She turned to find the Archmagos approaching her.

“They have finally departed” Cawl asked in a rough voice which came from one of his Vox hailers. It was really a statement not a question.

“Yes and thank you again for allowing Mercy to accompany him” said Voland.

“I doubt even I could have stopped her once she had made her decision” grated Cawl. “And besides, he needed a Magos Biologics to assist with the parting gift that I gave him.”

Voland looked up at the towering Cawl for a moment, not comprehending. And then it dawned on her. “You sent some of your Astartes with him?!” “How many?”

“One hundred.” “One hundred Steel Confessors, including three psykers” “Oh, and gene seed” said Cawl. “And their war gear of course”

“By the Emperor you took a terrible risk!” “The inquisition has ordered a lock-down on the confessors until the High Lords have convened and made a judgement on their fate” said Voland “but you know this!” “If the inquisition had discovered what had occurred they all could have been arrested and executed!”

“Be calm Ryal, no one but the three of us knew about the inclusion” said Cawl.

“And one hundred Space Marines!” shouted Voland.

“Well only one really.” replied Cawl “their captain, the other ninety nine were in stasis at the time and so were not in a position to tell anyone anything.”

Ryal just stared at Cawl and shook her head. She got the distinct impression he was enjoying this.

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.

Forward planning cabin of the Ark cruiser Sol Invictus

Brother Captain Lucius Celar

The captains of the three exploration ships in the fleet stared at the two imposing figures standing on the far side of the meeting room. They’re standing, thought Captain Lixon of the Dawning of Orion, simply because they wont fit into any of the chairs in the room.

The bulkhead door opened and Van Eck and Captain Aronvold entered the cabin. Aronvold actually stopped mid stride and gaped at the two Space Marines. He then turned, open mouth to Van Eck. “Captains, may I present Brother Captain Lucius Celar, commander of our detachment of the Steel Confessors and their Apothecary Brother Sergeant Julius Novas”. To Aronvold he said “these gentlemen are the ‘later’ or at lease two of them” The two Space Marines simply nodded to the acknowledgements.“We can make full introductions at a later time, right now we have more pressing issues” said Van Eck.

“Most immediate issue is that we are, for all intents and purposes – stranded”. As to where and when we are stranded, I’ll leave to RSN Lieutenant Caspian to explain. “Lieutenant?”

“Thank you my Lord.” Caspian felt the weight of all the eyes in the room organic or otherwise, on her as she brought up the holomap. “Captains, most of you know the overall situation as we have been working closely with all your navigation teams to establish our exact location, and we are confident we now know where we are.”

“Here” Caspian zoomed in on the holomap. “We have identified we are galactic north, north west of the Ultramar sector, in this relatively unexplored piece of space bordering on the Damocles Gulf and a sector called the Perdus Rift. “Let me rephrase that, a relatively unexplored piece of space in our time.” Caspian paused, then said “while the charts in the navigational banks of this section of space are, being generous, vague, we believe we have re-emerged from the rift in the mid to late 41^st Millennia

.

No one spoke, just exchanged glances, except for the Space Marines who just stared at Caspian in stoney silence. Arland suspected that the ship captains had all come here hoping to find that the previous briefings they had all received from their ships navigators, have been wrong. Captain Janus Kroc from the Neptune’s Tide was the first to speak.

Brother Sergeant Amos Deckard.

“Without our Astral Navigators, how are we supposed to get back to the Imperium or at leased, where we should be?” Kroc asked.

“Getting back to the Imperium was never our first concern” said Arland. As it stands we have , thanks to the ministrations of Magos Biologist Mercy and brother Sergeant Novas, a total of one recognised psyker across the fleet, and he is a librarian not a Astral navigator, thus making void travel impossible. “So as an exploration fleet, we have decided get on with our primary function, that of exploring”

“The first priority must be to establish a base of operations.” “Fortunately the fleet carries enough pre-fabrication to construct a small Forge World, which is exactly what I intend to do.” said Arland. “The Lieutenant believes, from the maps contained in the navigational codutators, that there are a small number of star systems containing planets within STLT, and we believe one or two of these will prove suitable.”

“We have dispatched probe drones towards these systems.”said Aronvold. “And I propose to move the fleet towards the most promising of these systems, Zeta Tau 44947 Omega, as soon as you are back on board your ships.” “The trip is expected to take around 6-7 months subjective ship time.”

“What makes the Zeta Tau system so promising?”asked Lixon.

“The Mechanicus exploration ship, the Land’s End, indicated that the scan of two planets in this system showed promising results for high levels of various minerals and ores.” answered Arland. “The Land’s End is the reason we know anything at all about this section of the rim.” Now I’ll let captain Aronvold issue you your directives and we shall get underway.

System Zeta Tau 44947 Omega.

“By the Emperor ….” whispered Aronvold as he gazed out at the vast debris field. 

“Scans have identified warp fields and construction corresponding with ships of the Xenos Eldar.” Said a senior Magos. “But a number of vessels exhibit no signatures and are of unknown configuration.”

“A new space fairing Xenos race?” said Brother Captain Celar

“It appears so” said Arland.

“They could be another branch of the Eldar” said Aronvold.

“Exhibiting no trace of a warp signature?” said Arland “Unlikely”. “No, this is something new”

“The Ordos Xenos will be pleased” commented Mercy.

“How do they travel through space for any distance without warp capability? Are they that advanced they have another alternative?” asked Aronvold

“Who said they do” said Mercy. “They may be a localised race. If they could travel vast distances the Empire would have encountered them before now”

Another probe communication appeared in Arland’s feed. “Drone B769 has entered orbit around its target planet.” said Arland “It has encountered more debris and has identified structures on the planet’s surface”.

Mercy said “I’d like to send out some servitors to recover some of the bodies we have identified in the debris field.” “This could help us to understand what we are dealing with”

“Arrange it” said Arland “and let me know when you commence your examinations”

Arland looked over at Aronvold who was still staring at the display of smashed ships. “Captain arrange for the picket drones to fly wider patrols out from the fleet. I don’t want any surprises”.

Aronvold finally shifting his gaze back to Arland “It has already been done my lord”

Some hours later - Laboratory Magos Biologis,

“Is the pale blue it’s natural colouring or is it due to its exposure to vacuum” Arland’s voice questioned in Mercy’s ear.

“Natural” commented Mercy.

The thin, fine boned alien was laid out on one of Mercy’s tables in the middle of the room. Around her flitted a number of servo skulls, recording the procedure from various constantly moving angles. Arland and a number of other senior members of the exploration fleet watched from the viewing window and on monitors screens around the room.

“Its internal physiology does not appear, overall, that different from our own, function wise” observed the Datasmith Sylus Molt. “Is that a lung?”

Mercy stopped and looked up at the observation window.

Molt said “I apologise for the interruption Magos, I will refrain from making further comment”

“Yes” Mercy said simply

.

After Mercy had finished her autopsies, she met with Van Eck on the command deck.

“So what is your considered opinion of the new xenos?” asked Arland.

“Sylus was correct, all three that I dissected were much the same from an overall anatomical perspective. However, there were two "genders" represented in the sample and until I know otherwise, I’ll refer to them as male and female. Their olfactory organs are located inside their mouths and I believe they see in both the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Their blood, like ours carries oxygen through their system, but where ours is high in iron, theirs contain a high proportion of Cobalt which is why their blood is a bluish purple. I think judging from their physic, all three have spent the vast proportion of their life in space.”Mercy surmised.

“How old where they?” asked Arland

“Impossible to tell” said Mercy. “They could have been twenty or two hundred”

And the other Xenos, any surprises?

"None, it or should I say she, hit all the DNA and physiological markers we have on file relating to the Eldar." said Mercy

“Aronvold has the fleet skirting the debris field and moving towards the first planet.” Said Arland “I also have several Tech-priests working through the data being relayed by the observation drones. The structures have been mostly destroyed but the few that remain, to some degree intact, are of a geometric style similar to the ships of the new Xenos. Once we reach a stable orbit around the planet, I’ll take some units of Skitarii down to the surface and obtain some first hand data from one of the  more intact sites.

“You will? Isn’t that a task for one of the senior adepts?”asked Mercy.

“And miss out on the possibility of first contact with a new sentient race?” said Arland “I think not”