Fear Incarnate

Fear Incarnate Portion 13

Fleet Admiral Stavros was old, far older than most that served beneath him. He had seen much, and pitted the crews of his vessels against horrors uncounted. In the man's prime he had fought like a lion, gutting chaos and xenos fleets with a fierce grin on his face. But now the old man was ridden with the curses of his age, he had lost an eye and its glowering blood red replacement swung about in its socket and stared down at his deck staff. Once shining blonde hair was now a chilling white and a closely shaved face revealed many wrinkles and blemishes. Stavros's age had only barely dulled his skills though, sadly, the High Admiral had not noticed this. So Stavros was sent off to fulfill his last years in service to the Emperor watching over the sparsely populated and ignored Despondos system. The young captains he was to mentor and test before they were sent off to fight in other warzones chattered and yapped in Stavros's ears. He would trade in any of the young whippersnappers for his old men, but they were all most likely dead or off fighting somewhere else. So Stavros sighed and opened a voxlink to his subordinates, "All of you damned chittering ingrates put tyranids to shame with your incessant obnoxiousness! Now shush up, these patrols are already bad enough without your Throne-damned complaining." The three captains quieted quickly, the vox link stayed dead. He sat back, satisfied with the small victory. He caught an irritated glance from his commodore, the woman was a straight backed no nonsense type. Which he would usually appreciate if not for her inherent hot headedness. "What? You wanted to listen to that?" She shook her head, "I would rather you not be so rude about it." she said simply. Stavros shrugged and left it, resuming his endless vigil over the expansive void.

"Commodore Korexya!" called an officer as the man rushed to her, Korexya's jaw clamped shut as she read the augury report the officer gave her. Without a word she passed it to the waiting Stavros. It detailed a recent warp translation into the Despondos fringe, Stavros put the parchment down and called to the bridge and his other vessels. "Attention Battlefleet Despondos, turn hard-a-starboard and make for coordinates 'Echo-Alpha-Zeta-6789635.' We might finally be getting some action."

"The Imperial Navy presence in-system is meagre, lieutenant. Only two Mars-class Battlecruisers and a pair of Lunar-class cruisers. Odds are they will simply slow us down here." Bunk nodded slightly at his compatriots' words, but his reasoning was not faulty. That he was sure of. "Understood, but they have been in this desolate system for far longer than we have, we will need the knowledge. Have you ever considered getting a vocalizer replacement? That old one is chipping at my nerves." The Reiver Sergeant shrugged, his skull helmet staring impassively into Bunk's eyes. "It works then, you forget that discomfort is my job." Bunk pinched the bridge of his nose with an armoured gauntlet as he sighed heavily, "Very well Kanx. You! Open a voxlink to the Imperial Navy."