Across the Sea of Stars

By Blade and Bolter

"FIRE ON THE LOWER DECKS! ALL HANDS TO BATTLESTATIONS IMMEDIATELY!"

The lord captain's voice roared throughout the halls of the massive retribution class battleship, Imperial Flame. The First Lieutenant had been taken out in the blast that the ship had taken on her lower deck.

Rushing to get to the bridge with his comrade were two Ensigns under command of Lord Captain Y/n. They tried to remain upright as the ship was rocked by yet another explosion.

One of them stumbled before his comrade helped him to his feet.

Ensign1: "You still with us, brother?"

The other ensign nodded as he got to his feet once more. The two nodded to one another once more before they took off running towards the bridge.

Upon their arrival, they saw the Chaos ship they had engaged with as well as more ships, however these were not of Chaos, these were some kind of unknown Xenos faction.

Ensign2: "Lord Captain!"

Lord Captain Y/n turned and sighed in relief as he saw them. The captain had a serious sense of duty of care for his crew. He had been that way for several years by this point, even when he was still but a boy climbing the ranks of the imperial navy.

Y/n: "Good to see you alive. Where is the First Lieutenant?"

Ensign1: "She got caught up in the lower deck when it exploded, sir."

Y/n: "Shit. We need to disengage from those damn Xenos so we can take out that Despoiler class ship. Second Lieutenant, what's the status of our warp drive!"

Lieutenant: "Warp drive is still functional sir, but we can't risk a warp jump right now. If there's one ship out here, then who's to say that there aren't more waiting within the warp?"

Y/n: "It's a risk we'll need to take."

Y/n nodded to the ship's astropath before speaking over the ship's internal comms relay.

Y/n: "All hands, brace for warp jump! Activate the gellar fields and hold on to your asses!"

The ship tried to make its warp jump, however the Chaos ship managed to hit one of the main decks.

Y/n growled before turning to the bridge crew.

Y/n: "Are any of our escorts still functioning!?"

Crew: "They've been destroyed for the most part, save for one strike cruiser. Though it's been disabled."

Y/n: "Shit! SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

Y/n held his position as the ship was rocked by yet another explosion. Looking at the sensors, he saw that there was a fire in the engine room.

They were likely done for now.

Y/n: "*sigh* May the emperor receive you all in his light."

With that, the Lord Captain laid his head in his arms from frustration as more explosions echoed all around him.

However...

???: "Lord captain! Three new signatures are dropping in from the warp!"

Y/n: "Chaos?"

???: "No, sir! Imperial ships!"

Y/n 's head perked up and he grinned as the warp tore open not too far in front of their ship. The bridge crew looked up in awe as an Emperor-class battleship dropped out of the warp and started hailing fire upon the enemy. The xenos ships seemed to be taking heavy casualties from the looks of things, yet they still continued a relentless assault.