C49 And now you don’t
And now you don’t.
Junkyard System, Logan.
“ Phase drive exit in. Three, two, one. “ Navigations called out, and Roland already stood on the bridge of the TMS Huntress, a light destroyer that was send to find the NH 02 Wreck.
“ We have reached Logan, all systems in prime condition, Cap. “ Navigations reported.
“ Good, General Luggan, if you would. “ The ships captain, a man by the name of Matthew Arland, suggested.
Arland was only Sergeant by rank, so he dared not make it an order, and in fact, he was only keeping up appearances as the ships Captain, handing off command to the person in charge of this mission.
“ Thank you, Cap. “ Roland responded, his eyes already scanning the view-screen for any possible sign of Psychic activity, which he found far to quickly for his taste, as the activity he watched was to fresh to be the 02.
“ There. “ Roland uttered, moving towards the Central map projector, where he narrowed down the general area where he could detect activity.
“ Approach this area, direct every observation tool to it and look for activity. There may be active ships in that area. “ Roland instructed.
“ You heard the man. Calculate trajectory and give us a boost. I want the ship running on Silent while approaching, sensors and eyes on the indicated area. “ Matthew Ordered his crew as, still being the ships captain, orders still had to come through him unless Roland wished to indirectly proclaim Matthew as incompetent.
“ Might be a good Idea to sit down for the acceleration. “ Matthew warned Roland as he remained standing, watching whatever in the distance.
“ Yeah. “ Roland agreed, taking a seat besides the captain.
“ Trajectory locked in, engines engage in three, two, one, engaging. “ Navigations called out.
Then the ship was gripped by a shudder when the engines engaged, and Roland could feel how he was being pushed back into his seat. He hated this part as the artificial grav-field was unable to compensate for maneuvers like this. It was often even disabled for high speed maneuvers, so that it would not effect Engine efficiency.
But he was looking forward to the chance to battle another Psyker. Confident that he could beat this one, which would end up granting him more strength again.
It was something few knew, especially the Terran Commonwealth who barely trusted any Psyker. But for a Psyker, defeating another, it meant plundering part of their strength, more so if you killed the other in that battle. Battle on the psychic plane, it wasn’t simply a measure of strength to Roland, it was a quick path to increase his own powers.
And thats what he joined the Terran Commonwealth for. They did not trust Psykers, and if they felt like they could not handle one, they hunted them down. And he chose to become a hunter once he understood that every Psyker he killed, empowering him further, more then any training could grant him.
It was in line with his ability too, playing the Commonwealth, even Karlo who thought him a friend, fool that he was. It made Roland smile, thinking abut how joyous Karlo seemed to have the smoking gun, when Roland lied about the ship in Vigla, having the same psychic energy on it. Something he dared to claim only after seeing the Hope and the 02 sharing the same energy pattern, and he was glad it was shown to him only after the first two ships.
No, Shroud was not merely an ability that hid his presence away, it was the very embodiment of his driving ambition, to grow in the shadow, until no one could dare lay a hand on him.
Subterfuge, that was perhaps the best description of his ability. Striking from stealth, misleading others, and paving a way for himself. Towards what ? Immortality, and the ability to run things from the shadows. The Commonwealth could hardly hunt him down, if he was in charge, they would be playing by his tunes.
And this other Psyker, while he may not be strong, he had unbelievable capacity for Psychic energy. Roland could hide a vessel like the Huntress for half a day at most, but if he could defeat that other Psyker and gain even a fraction of his capacity, it would be a whole day, maybe even multiple, that alone was worth it.
“ Engines disengaging in Three, two, one. Engines off. Ship is in drift. Estimated arrival time, 11 hours 34 minutes. “ Navigation announced.
“ General, live ships you said ? You think pirates made it in here ? “ Matthew addressed Roland, concerned as there were some larger shipwrecks in this system.
Destroyers, supply ships, even the TMS Wrath and her escorting fleet had been dumped here after the battle in Vigla. The automatic defense stations at the phase lane exit point should have taken care of any intruder. But there was always a chance that someone got passage somehow.
And while most ships where to damaged for the Military to care, pirates were not exactly picky, and the weapons alone in this system could make a Pirate quite the threat. They only needed to claim the turrets from the wrecks and put them on whatever.
“ Another Psyker, possibly pirate, but there is certainly a Psyker in system, I can see three ships being influenced by them. “ Roland shared as he believed that Psyker from Cradle, to somehow have made his way here.
“ Should we expect a combat scenario ? “ Matthew asked.
“ No, keep weapons in alert status. For now we just observe, I will erase our presence, and we decide once we know the situation. “ Roland responded, aiming to personally assault the other Psyker, attacking the other ships was only viable once he knew which ship the Psyker was on.
“ Very well. “ Matthew agreed.
“ I will be in my quarters to rest up. Alert me at the 5 hour mark. “ Roland instructed.
He was planning to withdraw for now to rest up and gather as much energy as he could. And when he got back, 5 hours before their arrival, they could possibly make the first useful observations.
“ General. “ Matthew formally noted, and then turned his attention back towards the bridge’s crew.
When 8 hours had passed, they finally managed to get the first useful image of the area. Though it took Roland to identify the exact point of interest as he was the only one able to see the psychic energy traces.
It allowed them to correct their course slightly to approach that area, and two hours later, make out details about the ships there. One that was definitely a wreck, the 02 as Roland could make out, and the other two, Terran ships. A striker class and a front-line engineer.
Those were ships that soon would be identified as the TMS Heretic, and the TMS Vandenburg, ships that had been lost in past engagements with the Seltran.
And when only about an hour out from their location, Roland could watch with confusion how a 4th vessel was being wrapped into that Psychic energy, after some smaller unit had approached it. They could then watch this, Seltran ship, starting to repair itself, and it did not look the same as on the 02’s recording.
“ What are they doing ? “ Matthew uttered, zooming the view in on the Seltran vessel.
“ I am not sure. “ Roland admitted, currently cloaking the Huntress from sight and sensors.
He was trying to reach out to that Psychic energy, suspecting that the enemy Psyker must be on board of that vessel now. But he could not get hold of the Psyker, which left him near speechless. It was as if, the other, he wasn’t even here, as if light-years away. To far for him to drag into the Psychic plane and kill.
“ Something is not right here. “ Roland admitted.
“ What do you mean ? “ Matthew asked.
“ The Psyker, he isn’t here. “ Roland responded, and then asked, “ What do we know about that Seltran vessel ? “
“ Assumed to be spy vessels, no known Combat capacity. Rarely ever seen on the front-line. They appear and disappear like ghosts. “ Matthew responded.
That worried Roland a little, his ability had limited value against Seltran, and he could watch how the Psychic energy on that ship was, strangely ordered, absorbed even, and that gave him a foreboding sense that there was more to that ship.
“ Prepare all weapons and aim it at that ship, once within missile range, we blast it out of the sky. “ Roland ordered.
“ If the striker is armed-,” Matthew intended to offer, but Roland cut him off.
“ Seltran first, prepare to swap to the Striker the moment the Seltran vessel is destroyed. I keep us hidden until the moment we fire. Once we fire, we get revealed, and that ship has to go first ! “ Roland insisted.
“ Understood. “ Matthew relented.
“ Prepare all weapons. Time till we got optimal missile lock ? “ Matthew Ordered then in turn.
“ 40 Minutes, Cap. “ The weapons officer responded.
And those 40 minutes, they felt longer then they should, time where they could watch that Seltran vessel take on full shape again. And how then the TMS Vandenburg was being positioned below that vessel, which gave Roland a bad feeling.
“ Stop them, whatever they are doing. Fire the main cannon. “ Roland demanded.
“ We are still a minute out on missiles. “ Matthew objected.
“ I said fire ! “ Roland demanded.
“ Fire the main canon ! “ Matthew relented.
Then the ship hummed as the primary cannon charged, only to cause the ship to shudder as it catapults it’s projectile with force towards the Seltran vessel.
“ Ready secondary guns and arm missiles. “ Matthew ordered moments later, just in time to see the Seltran’s frame wobble about, just enough for the main cannon’s projectile to barely miss it.
“ Fire ! “ Matthew ordered, watching how multiple rail-gun turrets and Missiles were firing then at the target.
“ Cap, Detecting massive energy buildup in the Seltran ship ! “ Sensors called out, and they could see on the screen how the Seltran vessel turned towards them, just to suddenly disappear in a flash of light.
“ What the hell ? “ Matthew called out.
But then the ship shook as something impacted the Huntress, followed by a loud explosion.
“ We lost starboard missile pods ! “ The weapons officer called out.
“ Shit. Target the striker ! “ Matthew hissed.
But then another hit struck them, aiming for the exact same point, which caused ship alerts to blare to life.
“ Missiles ! Fire them all ! And get us moving ! “ Matthew shouted.
Roland seemed frozen for a moment, even as the third hit struck them, not comprehending what just happened with that Seltran ship. It had a massive buildup of Psychic energy, and then suddenly just vanished, like it never had been there to begin with.
“ General, we need cover, Now ! That ship is going to tear us apart. “ Matthew demanded, watching the screen, and how the Vandenburg was moved to take the missile hits for the striker vessel.
And Roland could see it then, the Huntress’s damage indication, the Striker frigate was aiming precisely at the same spot, like it was trying to tear them apart. And with it’s massive railgun, that was likely a smaller variant of theirs, it would not be long before it shredded them to bits.
“ Fuck. Cease fire ! “ Roland demanded, trying to cloak the Huntress again.
“ Cease fire, all energy to drive systems ! “ Matthew relayed the order.
And yet still, two more times the ship was being struck, before the Enemy frigate had lost them completely.
“ God dammit, how much ammo do these carry ? “ Roland demanded.
“ Fully stocked, about 50 rounds. “ Matthew responded.
“ We can strike at it from longer range, but I would advice against it. At close range, we were sitting ducks, it has a much higher firing rate then our main cannon, and it caused significant damage. “ Matthew explained, giving a sort of, I tried to warn you pointer, without saying so directly.
“ Shit. Full retreat, contact THC the moment we leave Logan, we need more combat ships here. “ Roland ordered.
“ You heard it, full retreat, make max speed for the Phase lane point. And prepare a message for Terran High Command. And give me a casualty report. “ Matthew relayed.
“ Fuck ! “ Roland uttered under his breath, this turned into a mess, Karlo would not be amused. But perhaps, he could use this situation still.
Cradle System.
“ We have a problem. “ Aria announced towards Modaran and Thomas who currently were sitting in Marianna’s residence.
“ Hope just contacted, Anthony fell into a coma after sustaining a massive psychic backlash. It seems they been experimenting with his ability and ended up engaging in combat with Terran forces. And Anthony seems to have done something with a Seltran ship. “ Aria reported before either of the two managed to say a word.
“ What ?! The hell has he been doing ? “ Thomas spurted out, not yet comprehending as none of his ships had left Cradle yet.
“ Detecting Seltran ship entry in System. However, it’s currently not emitting any power signatures. “ Aria then added.
“ Oh for Mothers sake. “ Modaran now uttered.
“ Get us a shuttle Aria. And send a team to the Seltran vessel. “ Thomas instructed, a right he had now earned through the fact that he and Marianna had become a pair of sorts.