Everchosen : Chapter 28

-991.M41-

-Miracle of Suffering, Segmentum Solar-

-Joshua Pendrarc, Everchosen-

Somewhat predictably, two thirds of the Dark Eldar who had volunteered to act as guides had attempted to sabotage them in various ways, from not telling them about certain traps on their ships, to incorrectly informing how they should uninstall a large xeno pylon in its center, to incorrectly informing how they should set it up and power it on their own ships, to suggesting configurations that would destroy the ship, and so on.

These were all caught thanks to a rather prodigious use of the Tarot, letting him double check every step of the process multiple times until they landed on the correct sequence of events necessary to get everything set up and ready to use. He had been a burning pillar of golden light for many hours now, and it was honestly starting to get tiresome. Nine hours to prepare for the battle, an hour to clean up after, many more to get this nonsense ready for their escape from the system…

The Dark Eldar who had tried to sabotage them had simply been sent back to the brig without further ado. They had clearly been expecting a reaction, and that he wasn’t giving them one was probably more frustrating to them than any real punishment he could levy. 

The Dark Eldar that had yet to try to sabotage or betray them were allowed to pick from a selection of hobby implements and their choice of ration, and then sent back to their cells for the time being. One of them, a male, had ended up being selected as Governor more or less at random and was told to draft a list of laws and tithes to extract from his fellows.

Not that Joshua was going to give either more than a cursory look to make sure it didn’t fuck over humans.

He yawned slightly, raising a hand to cover his mouth as he did, smacking his lips together and blinking the tiredness from his eyes. Eyelids, he supposed, his actual eyes never got tired anymore thanks to being robotic. “Does anyone have the time?” He asked offhandedly, watching as an enormous gaggle of techpriests wandered around and fiddled with the large alien beacon now installed on the Miracle of Suffering.

“It is O-Seven hundred, Lord Saint.” One of the techpriests answered promptly, running some manner of diagnostic on an errant bundle of cables that connected to cogitators that worked hard to analyze the webway beacon.

Seven in the morning. He had barely noticed, only just recently starting to feel the weariness that dragged at the end of days. He felt like it was only halfway through the afternoon instead of well into the next morning. 

More evidence of the changes constantly being wrought upon his body, he supposed. He drew from the Tarot again. If he took a nap right now, would anything bad happen as a result, or would he miss any danger?

Prepare to be disappointed. 

All good then. He waved at the working techpriests. “I’ll be off for a nap before departure. Send a messenger if you need me for anything, good men, and keep up the good work.” 

All of the working techpriests acknowledged the statement with various levels of respect and nods, some going as far as to give the sign of the cog before quickly getting back to the various tasks at hand. He huffed in amusement at their dutiful disinterest in him compared to the machine they were working with, then made for the end of the large chamber and the door that led to a causeway that led to an elevator that led to the central causeway that led back to his room. 

Ukey followed him out of the room, along with Aias, the Remembrancer, and the trio of servo-skulls that always accompanied him as of late. “Going to bed too, Ukey?” Joshua asked with a raised brow and a casual air, oversized blade of Russ slung over his shoulder. 

The techpriest glanced at him, eyes darting up and then down, and then looked forwards and shook his head quickly. “Off to the manufactorum- My presence here was mostly a formality, Lord Saint. I don’t- I’m not particularly familiar with this field…” Ukey glanced behind them at the captured webway beacon and the gaggle of unfamiliar priests working around it. “These priests are Xenarites in service to the Inquisition… I- I don’t associate with such men, not by choice.”

“I was under the impression that the Mechanicus shuns and hates xeno technology, was that incorrect?” Aias asked in an amicable manner as they reached the mechanized gates of the chamber. A pair of skitarii warriors nodded at them and gestured at the doors, which began to open at once.

“No- you are correct. The Alien Mechanism is a Perversion of the True Path.” Ukey cited with a mild fervor. He hesitated before speaking again. “But the Quest for Knowledge has led some among the order to… interpret this law in flexible manners.”

“A perversion of the true path, but by studying traces of that the true path can be found again, or something to that effect?” Aias asked with a tilt of his helm.

Ukey nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, something to that effect. The specifics are a matter of long debate between the Archmagi of the Mechanicus, and largely beyond my expertise, so I would prefer not to offer further word on the matter than that.”

Ukey paused again, then nodded deferentially at him. “I understand that the Omnissiah has ordered this through the Tarot, Lord Saint, let me assure you of that.”

“But you don’t approve of the use of xenotech regardless.” Joshua nodded with an understanding look on his face. The techpriest hesitated strongly, then gave a short, curt nod. Joshua continued. “Well worry not- as soon as we’re through the Webway we’re taking it right out again and handing it over to the Inquisition to handle. Perhaps I can order the construction of a version that uses good human technology after we return to Terra.”

“That would be good, yes.” Ukey nodded with a relieved look on his face. 

Men and women fell to their knees as they passed, the pillar of light that surrounded him could be seen across even the largest of these passageways, even as it slowly faded. Their hands clapped together in shaking salutes, and their foreheads often hit the deck with audible sounds. He wanted to stop and ask if they had hurt themselves- but the last time he did that he had been locked in a long conversation with a woman who spoke exclusively in blubbery apologies.

He had managed brief, somewhat casual conversations with strangers aboard the ship before- but only while the golden glow wasn’t active. So long as it was blazing, he couldn’t simply walk up and greet people as he did before.

Maybe it was something of a blessing in disguise- it provided a clear delineation between when he was using power and when he wasn’t, and so long as he wasn’t using power he could blend in somewhat. Meanwhile, if he didn’t have this aura of light, then there would be no boundary between when he was ‘on the job’ and not. It was entirely possible that he would’ve never received relief from the worship in that reality.

One menial’s face hit the floor hard enough that something cracked audibly. Joshua sent a concerned glance towards the robed man as he passed by. 

But maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part.

“Ah- our paths diverge here, Lord Saint…” Ukey mentioned with a gesture towards a side-hall. Joshua waved him off in a dismissive fashion. “By your leave then. Will you need aid in removing your armor?”

“No, we’ve been through the process enough times that I’ve memorized it.” Joshua shook his head. “I can probably put it on myself too, with these golden arms to help me.”

“Of course. Please inform the servoskull if you need anything of me.”

With that the techpriest departed, moving to a lift and pressing the keys needed to take him lower in the ship. 

Joshua, Aias, and the Remembrancer continued on, moving to the much larger lift at the far end of the hallway, several hundred meters away.

“Lord Vessel, may I be permitted a question?” Aias spoke suddenly a few dozen meters later.

“You may.” Joshua nodded.

“I understand the need to put them under official protection for their services, however temporary, but was it wise to establish them as an official protectorate?” Aias turned his horned helmet towards him, visor glinting in the occasional lights of the ship halls. “These are not mere terrestrial primitives, working with iron and bone and dying to local fauna. They are Dark Eldar. Dangerous.”

“Mhm.” Joshua nodded and hummed, then replied. “I don’t expect them to last very long, no.”

The space marine kept staring at him as they walked, silent, so Joshua continued his explanation. “They’re Dark Eldar, they’re going to attempt a betrayal at some point. And because we know they will eventually, we can simply shoot them then. The only question is how long they’ll wait before attempting it. A week? A month? A year? Even if they wait a century, that’s a blink in the eye of the wider Imperium.”

Joshua shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Even if they have some means to cheat death and slink back to their homes- that’s just a return to the way things were before. Nothing much is lost, but we gain whatever we gain from them until the moment of betrayal.”

“And what do we gain, Lord Vessel?”

“Well today we gained a good deal of information about how to set up a webway interface.” Joshua nodded and gestured back at the other end of the hallway, where they had come from. “Sure I had to parse through most of what they said with the Tarot, but it was something I could do, and now we have a functional way to access their hidden subdimension for whatever the Emperor wants us to find at the other end.”

Joshua dropped the hand and turned forwards again. “Tommorow we might get something else out of them, even if that’s just knowledge of how many insults they have for humanity, or how obnoxious they can be in confined spaces. We don’t know until tomorrow comes.”

“They could do great harm with such proximity for extended periods.” Aias declared.

“Every time I go to sleep I draw the Tarot, asking if there will be any serious danger while I sleep.” Joshua admitted calmly, for as much as it made him feel like he was being overly paranoid. “Every time I wake up, I draw the Tarot and ask if there will be danger within the next twenty four hours. If they manage to do great harm under those conditions, then either I have been awake far too long, or they have managed to fool the God-Emperor.”

“I see. Thank you for indulging my questioning, Lord Vessel.” Aias nodded in mild satisfaction.

“No worries, it wasn’t a bad question.” Joshua shook his head. “Rest assured, I certainly don’t trust them, and I don’t expect them to stay very long. Being called vassals at all probably rankles at their pride like nothing else.”

They walked quietly along for a few moments. 

“And if they find the arrangement more beneficial to labor under than not?” Aias asked in a low tone.

Joshua quirked a brow. 

“Then I suppose we’ll just wait till they die against our enemies instead. It’s not like there are any shortage of those in the Galaxy.”

“This is true.”

—

“Everything is ready, Your Divinity, all that remains is your order!” Captain Bruno declared in a firm tone, saluting him before a series of screens and servitors that represented the other captains in the fleet. A new screen had been added, and the servitor that was attached wore an antique greathelm made of steel and furnished with a cloth headband, with the face of a bearded man on the corresponding screen.

“How close did that Warp Storm end up getting, before we depart?” Joshua asked while pulling the Tarot and asking a different question to it. A pulse of gold rippled out from his forehead in the pattern of a halo. Was everything ready for them to enter the Webway?

Dismiss needless concerns and focus yourself.

Bruno turned his head to his Navigator, seated atop her throne at the end of the helm, who maintained the slightly unnerving hobby of just staring at Joshua every time he was in here. She jolted, then nodded and answered quickly. “Less than a day away at these speeds. It would’ve caught the fleet if we had to spend the time moving to the Mandeville point before leaving the system.”

Joshua nodded, it took nearly half a day to reach the Mandeville point of any system. Not because Imperial ships couldn’t go any faster, but because going too fast ran significant risk of hull damage from all the debris that littered the space around any star. You had to go slow so that the Void Shields could take the hit and then recover in time for the next bit of space dust. 

They were beating out their pursuers by half a day here. “Tell King Plaugmann that I send my regards, and that I said ‘God-Emperor’s gaze be upon you’. The enemy is soon to arrive, if they bother attacking at all.”

One of the men at the comms nodded vigorously, and rapidly began to type at the cogitator’s console. 

With that addressed, he turned towards the collection of screens. “The Tarot says that everything is ready. We may begin the transit into the Webway at your discretion, Admiral.” 

The Admiral nodded, and with a tug on his half-flesh lips, he growled out an order. “Techpriests, begin the activation of the beacon.”

A techpriest standing around the table, wearing black robes with an inquisitorial brand on the front and back, nodded and brought his hands together. A secondary screen appeared on the map-display, relaying the chamber where the webway beacon was stored.

In real time, they got to watch as the techpriests began a series of rites, prayers, and linkages. Chanting echoed through the mechanical speakers as a trace of lights and electrical current began to course their way through wires, cogitators, and into the alien beacon.

“Oh great, alien mechanism!”

“May you remember the Machine God, the Forebear you were stolen from!”

“Your spirit, warped by alien hands, is baptized in this current!”

“This current which is Motive Force, may it cleanse you of sins engineered into your form!”

“We beseech the Machine God, accept this wayward device, and grant it the favor of function!”

“And let it remain so!”

The electrical current finally reached the beacon itself, and it began to burn with a strange, half-psychic light. It pulsed in uncertain patterns for several long moments as the prayers and chants continued, before finally settling into a steady, humming glow of electric blue. 

Beyond the immense windows of the helm, the space ahead of them pulsed with one flash of light, a flash that almost immediately faded back into the void. The distorted space of the gravitational anomaly that orbited the planet warped the light of stars behind it, then unwarped them, then warped them in the opposite direction.

“Captains- long range scanners report a change in the anomaly!” A man in the distance, attended to by a group of similar men at cogitators, turned back and called up at them. “We’re getting readings of a- tunnel structure!”

“The gate is open, Mon-Keigh.” A male Dark Eldar declared with a bored tone, waving a hand. He was tall and lean- indistinguishable from any other Dark Eldar male save for his hair tied in a loose knot near the small of his back and a handful of decorative scars. He ignored how the sisters around him pointed their guns at his side and head, and how everyone in the room bristled at his speaking. “It will remain open so long as you power the beacon or get one Lann away from the gate.”

“Point nine six Lann. The Archon kept refusing to pay for its repair.” A female Dark Eldar corrected with a bored sneer of her own, wiggling her fingers. She had her hair tied into a series of long braids that fell down as far as her ankles, and a series of black tattoos that gave the impression of limb-stockings. 

“And how far is a Lann?” Joshua asked with one brow raised. 

“Further than the local star is- so unless you want your enemy to chase you inside, I suggest moving quickly.” The male suggested with a sneer, then a mocking smirk. “As quickly as the ponderous rocks you call starships can move, that is.”

“Be silent, xeno.” Bruno hissed in a warning fashion.

“All ships, approach the tunnel-space at one point nine nine gravities of acceleration.” The Admiral ordered sharply, bringing the attention back towards the matter at hand and away from the sassy aliens in the helm.

A series of confirming calls came from the various captains, and the fleet began to move towards the apparent gateway. It could not be seen directly in realspace, but the map helpfully provided an image of what the space looked like before them.

A gate as wide around as a moon with a space-time map that stretched inwards and away from the local space, giving a somewhat confusing display. 

The first ship began to reach the tip of the gate’s space, and disappeared from realspace before them. A tense moment followed, but the ship remained on the map display, and the captain remained on the screen. 

“...This is Captain Julik. We have transitioned into an enormous tunnel structure.” The captain relayed to the rest of the fleet. 

Slowly, the Miracle of Suffering pulled up to and past the gate’s edge. The tip of their ship began to vanish before their eyes, and finally the helm passed through.

A looming, monolithic, astronomically huge tunnel system suddenly came into view. A chasm in space with dull gold walls made of the same bizarre living bone that most Eldar structures were wrought from. It was dark, with only a faint, semi-psychic glow providing ambient light to the chamber, only barely brighter than distant stars in the blackness of space.

The tunnels were enormous- mind bendingly enormous, multiple astronomical units wide and tall. Enough space to hide a planet in, or a fleet, or any number of other galactic objects. And the tunnels stretched before them for light years of warping and flexing not-terrain. 

They were in the Webway now, the largest structure ever wrought in history. 

“The nearest exit is a day away.” The Dark Eldar male waved a casual hand, ignoring the awe and dread of the humans present. “It's on the left.”

Joshua drew the Tarot.

Where are we going?

The faithful know to take a straight and narrow path, with minds to righteousness.

“We’re going straight and then taking a right.” Joshua declared instead, gold pulsing around his brow. 

Both of the Dark Eldar glanced at him, casual airs briefly dispelled into looks of predatory contemplation. 

He ignored them with the same ease he ignored druggies on Necromunda.