Vex Chronicles 3: Hunt

True colors

Aes Cognis, operations room

Hakkar looked around the room. Everyone of Vex's retinue was assembled at the large desk in the operations room. And some of the Aes Cognis bridge officer's were there too. Even the new tech priests had been invited.

"What's going on?" Hakkar leaned closer to Jubelius. But the other sergeant just twitched his shoulders.

Vex choose that moment to enter the room. And he wasn't alone. Gerrisat's robed figure strode beside him.

"We have a big problem." Vex stepped towards the cogitator and slipped a data disk in. A complicated diagram appeared in the screen that was embedded in the center of the table. It kind of looked like a pylon of sort.

"What is that?," sergeant Hakkar asked.

"That is what the dark eldar are after. A weapon, its location well hidden as fragmented data in xenos artifacts, scattered throughout the region."

"Why all this effort?" Sill asked. "Is it such a deadly weapon?"

"I can't understand how the necrons think." Vex said with a forced smile. "No one knows why they choose to entomb themselves and their souls in metal graves. But here in Gaten they entombed something more. This."

He gestured towards the schematic.

"And what... izz it, madman?," Hasthia grumbled out.

Vex smiled. And this time it was not a forced gesture. "Sorry... I skipped ahead a bit. This is like the bait for a treasure hunt. This is the incomplete sketch of a device, powerful enough to set a star ablaze. It is a necron starkiller weapon. And the dark eldar are after it. In out hunt for Majoris, we stumbled into something even more threatening. Good men have already died for this. This weapon can't be allowed to fall into dark eldar hands."

Vex turned towards Feh. "Captain. Without our own astropath we need to jump to the closest imperial system. This is something the Administratum and my Ordo have to know. But we can't just trust them alone to deal with this."

Vex switched the desk display to another image – a star map. "I calculated potential places where more artifacts could hide. We need to gather them, unlock what hides inside and assemble the full map that leads to the starkiller. And we have to be faster than the dark eldar."

"How can you even calculate this?" Feh gestured towards the map?

"Let your navigational officer take a look at the map and the data. Maybe I made an error somewhere. At least one of those locations is not part of any imperial map. So I may have made an error somewhere. But if you want to verify my calculations, remember that we have no time to lose. I trust you to make the right decision."

Vex sat down and let his gaze wander through the assembled people. Hakkar felt that the impression of a driven man had disappeared from Vex. The inquisitor was still sad from the loss of a good friend. But he was no longer paralyzed by it. Something had changed in Vex. And Hakkar could feel that it was a change for the better.

"How can we prepare for this?," Hakkar asked "None of us ever faced the necrons. And Kressman..."

Vex sighed when Hakkar dropped the veteran's name. "I can train you. I may not be a military man. But Markos can fill in every gap."

Vex managed an honest grin as he looked at sergeant Jubelius. "And Faradia will make sure none slacks around."

Jubelius rolled his eyes. "When do we begin?"

Vex looked at Feh and the captain stood up. "Now. I'll instruct our navigator, the Mechanicus had provided us with."