He stepped out of the room, snapping his helt into place. Telax's voice crackled through the vox channel, fragnted by interference:
"Brother Komnenos, assemble at the bridge imdiately. We have an ergency!"
"What?" Before the word had even registered, the Astartes was already sprinting at full tilt. Mortals saw only a massive shadow hurtling toward them, deftly swerving at the last microsecond to avoid a collision. "What kind of ergency? Has Varex co up with another one of his erratic whims?"
"Worse."
Enkidu's heart sank. A cold wave of dread rippled through his chest.
"Specify."
"The Lash of Agony and the Velvet Abyss are under fire. This was a conspiracy—a total trap!" Telax let out a pained, low growl. The vox feed was laced with a strange clicking sound, like the crunching of biological bone. "Those Craftworld rats have joined forces with their dark kin. This ship was nothing but a lure to reel us in!"
That's impossible—
What kind of play is this?
Enkidu fell into a speechless, grim contemplation. During his years of initiate training, Telax had briefly ntioned the long-standing blood feud between the warband and the Aeldari. It was a simple, ugly story: catching pointy-ears to sacrifice to Slaanesh, followed by Craftworld retaliation and warband casualties. However, these past few years had been so quiet he had almost forgotten the Aeldari even existed as a threat.
As for why the Aeldari happened to be waiting right in their path... one could only say that having Farseers was truly an unfair advantage. While humanity was still cautiously poking at the mysteries of the Warp, Aeldari Farseers were already surfing its currents, all while dodging the reach of the Youngest Goddess.
They might be prone to the "clown move" of self-fulfilling prophecies, but most of the ti, Aeldari Farseers were terrifyingly reliable.
Like now.
Just as the three-way chaos between the Drukhari, the Chaos Astartes, and the Rogue Trader forces reached its fever pitch, the Craftworld fleet—which had been maintaining its holographic shroud—finally tore off its disguise. Several Starcannons, firing from multiple vectors, slamd into the defenseless Velvet Abyss and Lash of Agony. Though their void shields snapped up instantly, the relentless, cascading strikes left their protections flickering like candles in a gale.
When Enkidu reached the bridge, this was the tactical nightmare he found.
Telax was in a towering rage, swinging a mangled xenos corpse around with a wet thwack-thwack sound, using it like so macabre, uniquely aesthetic whip.
And Varex—
Varex was still drowned in a drug-induced sensory haze, listening to his brother's roars with an indifferent glaze over his eyes. It was as if the destruction of his own flagship was a matter of total insignificance.
"Are you even listening?!" Telax scread, his patience finally snapping. "The Velvet Abyss and the Lash are being torn apart! We need to return imdiately and repel those Craftworld vermin!"
Enkidu took a mont to scan the augur array display. It showed the Aeldari had skillfully divided their fleet into several offensive echelons. As one echelon recharged, another would comnce firing, ensuring a continuous, unbroken barrage—reminiscent of the ancient "three-rank volley fire" used by human musket infantry.
The effect was devastating. The void shields of both ships were being bled dry. If they didn't escape soon, they would ignite into two very expensive fireworks in the void.
"Oh, I'm listening," Varex said airily. "In fact, isn't this a blessing? Abandoning those dilapidated, under-gunned little boats to embrace this lovely grand vessel... I've even chosen a na for her. What do you think of the Screaming Bride?"
"Is this the ti for naming ships?!" Telax hurled the xenos aside, looking like he wanted to punch Varex into the deck plating. "Our gear, our weapons, our ammo, our slaves—everything is on those ships! And the initiates... if they die, do you have any idea how long it will take to replace them?"
And this grand vessel won't necessarily get away either, Enkidu added silently. Aeldari ships were far faster than Imperial designs; they could easily kite them, firing while retreating. Without a fleet to cover their escape, being picked apart by Aeldari long-range fire was a mathematical certainty.
He stepped forward, breaking the electrified tension between the two veterans.
"I agree with Brother Telax. We must fall back to defend the Lash. Even if we fall to those rats, it will be in battle against the xenos. To flee with our tails between our legs would be a death without honor. Furthermore, our Apothecary brother is still aboard the Velvet Abyss."
"It seems your Brother Enkidu is quite eager to follow you," Varex's eyes flickered with a predatory light, before shifting back to a topic he actually cared about. "As a generous lord, I shall grant your request. Our dear Morpheus is indeed in need of rescue. Now, everyone—except the initiates—return to the ships."
Flying across a battlefield saturated with heavy ordnance is always a miserable task. Whether in-atmosphere or in the void, stray shells and lances of light can turn you into an expanding cloud of debris at any second.
Inside the rattling shuttle, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense. Enkidu stared out the viewport as Telax gave him an ergency briefing on Craftworld combat doctrines.
At the edge of the velvet-black horizon, an unparallelled, gargantuan vessel drifted. Giant solar sails wound out from its wraithbone structure, making it look less like a ship and more like a great whale cruising through a sea of stars. Countless Aeldari escorts were scattered around it like schools of pilot fish. Starcannons fired in sequence, pounding the two Astartes vessels with relentless precision.
The Lash of Agony was faring slightly better, performing desperate evasive maneuvers to minimize hits. The Velvet Abyss, however, was sluggish; its massive size made it an irresistible target for the Aeldari focus-fire.
The shuttle's engines were screaming at their redline.
In this mont of desperate urgency where we can do nothing but wait, Enkidu thought, just as a flash of light illuminated his visor.
The craft banked so hard it nearly inverted. Everything not bolted down clattered across the cabin, only to be thrown the other way by the centrifugal force. He grabbed his restraint, staring out the window.
A silent, magnificent display of celestial fire was unfolding.
Having confird that the Velvet Abyss's void shields were flickering out, the Aeldari had comnced a new phase of the attack. A light, hotter than a sun and colder than the night, condensed on the Aeldari warships. A few long seconds later, a divine wrath shattered the darkness, leaving phantom after-images on his retinas.
The shuttle pilot miraculously perford several barrel rolls to clear the path of the lances, granting them a front-row seat to the carnage.
Like an eel having its belly slit open by a jagged knife, the Velvet Abyss buckled violently. Its slick armor plating peeled away in layers, vomiting a massive cloud of unholy internal contents into the void.
The void shields were gone. The Velvet Abyss had been gutted by the lances.
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