Curze's Curse

Emperor, protects us.

Once more, I looked at the table. The table, so great that it lit the entire strategium with the Sabbat Sector's many systems. People say outside of these plasteel walls, that guard us from the cold dark void, that there are about 100 inhabited systems in this large sector of imperial space.

They lie.

There are around 280. It's a vast sector, a major part of the far larger segmentum. And they all stood highlighted in the strategium according to their departementum minitorum classification, resources, in blood or in toil and their fame, if they held any. alongside major warp and minor warp routes stood highlighted in a hue of colour akin to amethyst.

There, in the holographic projection of one of the imperiums vastet realms duelled lord of the void, admirals of fleets. The imperium against an incursion unknown, tactical cogitators having decided how much each lord of war commanded, according to the usual stipulations, and so Ravensburg Lord Admiral of the Sabbat Worlds led a possible incursion into imperial space, against the servants of the Golden Throne and Him Terra as Admiral Horthy, Lord of Battlefleet Cabal defended the God Emperor's realm.

Neither of the participants in this simulation beheld the entirety of the information, only those who watched did. And the highest among the segmentum were some of them.

A Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, with its servo arms far above any mortal's head,the envoy representing the interest of Urdesh and Atar-Median, forge worlds whose latter was of particular interest due to its Collegia Titanica Forces.

"The Lord Admiral moves his fleets akin to dance. His targets seemingly unrelated" he said with his mechanic that beheld still some humanity in it.

Lord General Militant Ceaser of the Astra Militarum, incharge of all Guard and Planetary Defense Forces Stationed in the sector, had his own insight as well.

"Although seemingly unrelated, these random attack have managed to keep the Admiral unbalanced, unable to establish a pattern to appropriately retaliate"

"Ravensburg is striking at periphery worlds , ignoring important locations in the subsectors." Inquisitor Salazar noted. Yet the overall strategy was eluding the command staff

"Ravensburg is trying to goad Horthy into overextending himself." A sergeant from the Sons of the Phoenix chapter observed

"Opening a line to strike at Balhauth or Jago. Two of the four major warp junctures in the larger sector. He is commanding his wars as the Shadowed Lord did in the Great Crusade"

The Magos arms wreathed and moved, almost surprised.

"He is indeed. Such tactics stand in page 1227 of the Tactica Imperium, a section rewritten by the Lord of the 19th according to some sources"

"Why is he using those tactics though?" the Lord Commander asked, not oblivious of the value but simply curious on the why of such approach.

"In the Inquisitorial Archives, It is said that the 8th Legion had a very similar way to wage war as the 19th. And according to reports from Segmentum Command in Hydraphur, raids of such traitorous scum has risen to all time high in the Segmentum."

"Isn't the 8th the Night Lords?" The Lord Commander asked, simply searching for confirmation.

"Yes/Indeed" replied the Inquisitor and the Magos simultaniasly, the mortal voice seamlessly into the mechanic speech of the Mechanicus adept.

As these lords amongst servants spoke and discussed, the simulation went forward, the opening had finally been revealed to Ravensburg. His disinterest in Hagia System had prompted Horthy to reassign his assets to other subsectors. Such an opening, while evident, wasn't directly seen by Ravensburg, it had been noticed by the volume of reinforcements that had arrived to sectors adjacent to Balhaut and Jago, locations directly linked to Hagia in the matter of a few Warp Jumps.

"Impressive." the Space Marine thought.

"Ravensburg is making moves on estimations from moves most mortals would have already forgotten, and his push into Hagia, besides breaking the defence network of Horthy, serves as a great launching point for further assaults on critical worlds such as Urdesh, Verghast and Lyubov. It was also done with a confidence not common in these mortal circles. The match is over. Ravensburg won. He has split the sector into two largest halves that he can crush individually, and due to the traitor side not needing to actually capture the planets he is faster and more responsive than Horthy, even though he has a much smaller number of assets."

Finally, with the last move made, Ravensburg broke all sector cohesion, by destroying the central astropathic stations in the Phantine system in the Khan Group. Dooming the sector to a slow and blind death. A stroke of genius, that clearly showed where defences needed to be reinforced and the vitality of seemingly unimportant words such as Phantine and Khan II.

It was a good end, as the moment Ravensburg and Horthy shook hands after the simulation and the holographic table returned to the customary state of colours and warnings, the large strategium door opened. An unassuming captain from a small frigate whose duty was to patrol the edge of the northern Khan Group.

Captain Nelson, Captain of the Flame of Wrath. The herald spoke.

"My lords, I bring an urgent report." the Captain said as he saluted.

"CLEAR!" the Astartes shouted with an oddly melodious voice, making servants and officers scurry away from the room, like rats running from a group of cats.

"Report, Captain. What is so urgent as to interrupt the entirety of sector's command staff."

The captain, passed a data slate to Admiral Horthy, the only officer he knew and the one he directly answered to.

"As I patrolled the augur stars, north Aondrift Nova, we detected a large Armada without any allegiance code. We trailed the fleet, at the edge of their gun range until they opened fire on us with some form of Void Bomber. The Flame of Wrath suffered minor damage, and with this we confirmed that these forces indeed were enemies of the imperium. As such i immediately came here to report these events.''

"Are you sure of these events?" The astartes asked him. Doubting this report to a degree.

"Yes,my lord." The captain replied, with some pauses. The Astartes's presence surely influenced his action.

"If what you say is true, a large chaos fleet is heading to our sector." Ravensburg commented.

"Is he trustworthy? The Astartes questioned.

"I can vouch for his integrity, my lords." Admiral Horthy spoke. " He is one of the best captains in my larger fleet, he has never failed in his duty, and his faith in the emperor is unquestionable."

Ravensburg and the Astartes nodded.

"Very well. Captain, your valour will not be forgotten. Dismissed." The Inquisitor spoke, the words Ravensburg was about to say.

The Captain bowed, and left.

And soon what had minutes earlier been a simulation, a dreaded distant thought, had become reality unmistaken reality.

Yet the Lord Admiral did not dread, or despair. He did not flinch or brood. Instead he laughed. A laugh full of mirth and cheer.

For in a realm as vast as the Imperium of Man, of all duties him on Terra could have given him. For all the wars, the Golden Throne could have appointed him to fight, from the Lord Regent's Crusade or the Battlefleets at the Golden Throne's command.

From the expanses of the Halo Stars in the far galactic Northwest to the realm of Ultramar in the Galactic Southeast or worse, the realm of the Dark Imperium.

Of all of those, he had been given a Sector Command, just as his forefather from a Millennia before. And just like him he now stood alone in the defence of an Imperial Sector against the oldest enemies of the Golden Throne.

He stood alone, in a Sector isolated and abandoned against odds worsening by the second.

Yet in a Galaxy assailed by the alien , the mutant and the heretic there is only war.