40k short story

[Roma]

Pride of Pacificus

 

A deafening crack shook the walls of “Dominator”, followed closely by a hundred more salvoes

from a plethora of cannons aboard the enemy ship. Admiral Tomhauser stood unfazed aboard the command deck of the mighty starship, knowing that an Imperial Battle barge of Dominator’s magnitude could withstand ten time that firepower. It was the pride of Segmentum Pacificus, a large slice of Imperial space, and had proudly served the Segmentum for millenia. “Void shields at 54 percent” lieutenant Gabriella read from her display station.

“Planetquake broadside from right midsection” ordered Tomhauser into his commlink, his voice mechanically carried along the eight kilometres of Dominator’s right-hand side. Dominator unleashed a withering fusillade of planetquake warheads. Designed for destroying continents, the warheads made quick work of the alien starship’s void shields, rocking it violently off course. Dominator rumbled past, and its rear section was soon level with the doomed vessel. “Planetquake broadside from right rear section”, In compliance, Dominators crew unleashed another fussilade. The cloud of planetquake warheads completely covered the significantly smaller vessel, setting off a chain explosion as its plasma reactors overheated. Billions of tons of metal disintegrated in the blinding flash of a dying star. When Tomhauser opened his eyes, it was as was if the ship had never existed. Satisfied that his attention was no longer needed, Tomhauser returned to a holographic display, which showed detailed accounts of the planet bellow. The segmentum pacificus navy had received a distress signal from the planet of Kraag four weeks ago, and the High Lord admiral had immediately petitioned Tomhauser’s fleet to make a warp jump into the subsector. Even travelling through the warp, they had arrived too late...

From space, the surface of planet Kraag seemed visibly straining to keep its tectonic plates together. The dying world had obviously been ferociously bombarded from space, probably by this very alien fleet, and lava seeped from cracks across its surface, as if blood trying to clot mortal wounds. Tomhauser realised that the cracks must be kilometres in length to be so clearly visible from just outside kraag’s atmosphere. He switched his holographic display to fleet view, blinking green dots showed the condition and location of his ships. He realised that there was only one red dot on the map left. “90 degree turn left, 20 degrees down” bellowed Tomhauser. The crew aboard the command deck immediately began clicking away on their workstations. As Dominator turned to its left, the single remaining alien ship became visible through the giant viewport. Tomhauser noted the craft as of alien design, judging by the symbols and size probably a flagship of the tau empire, being picked apart by two of his own frigates. “Enemy ship attempting to hail us” said lieutenant Gabriella, “let them through”. The command deck became surrounded by the sound of static. Finally, a voice became discernable. “This is Shais’O Annumael T’ovash of the the Tau empire, ceasefire, I repeat ceasefire!” Tomhauser fuzzily remembered that a Shais’O was some Tau equivalent of a commander, he activated his commlink , “all units ceasefire, let’s hear what this alien has to say”.

All six frigates and ten escorts of his flotilla replied in confirmation. “This is admiral Tomhauser of the Imperial navy, I have been sent here by the order of the High Lord Admiral of Segmentum Pacificus to destroy enemy influence in this sector, which alien, happens to be you”.

“My people are not responsible for any destruction in this sector” crackled the Shais’o’s voice, “we had to make an emergency warp jump from the neighbouring sector, we were pursued by enemy craft.”

“Is that so said Tomhauser, so you expect me to believe that you just happened to be right beside a destroyed Imperial planet, in Imperial controlled space, and just happened to open fire on my navy the moment we warp jumped into this sector!”

“Put yourself in my position, an unheralded Guel’a navy warp jumps right beside my fleet, with void shields and weapon systems activated, I have meant no harm. The Tau seek to unite all species to promote peace in the galaxy, we are have no cause attack Imperial controlled space! I am not even aware of who attacked this planet”.

“Where’s the proof!” shouted Tomhauser into the commlink. At that moment, multiple alarms set off on the command deck. “warp portal opening in coordinates 2.543.6 alpha, multiple craft crossing into real-space” a man shouted from his control panel.

“They were stalling” Tomhauser cursed, “train all weapon batteries on the warp rifts”.

“Enemy vessel re-powering void shields and weaponry!”

“Emperor dam them!” Taught Tomhauser, they were quietly bringing their systems online while keeping him conversation, and now they had reinforcements coming through.

However what came through the warp rifts were definitely not tau reinforcements.

Dozens of small vessels, sleek and deadly, black as the space that surrounded them forced their way out of the rifts. They set upon the closest ship, dissecting the Imperial vessel with lances of darklight laser weaponry as a school of piranha might consume a whale. Before Tomhauser could gather his senses, the frigates void shields blinked out of existence. The frigate manage a desperate salvo that hit nothingness before the manoeuvrable vessels split it efficiently in half with controlled darklight lance bursts. The two halves of the vessel feel neatly apart, and the 20,000 souls within got sucked out by the vacuum of space, mouth open in silent screams as their crushed bodies froze in seconds. Tomhauser knew that this could only be the work of Dark Eldar, the feared alien space reavers that struck from their twilight realm of Commoragh in search of slaves and death.

“There is your proof Gue’la” said the Shais’O grimly. Tomhauser snapped to his senses,

“you will refer to me as human alien, all units, defensive formation around the Tau vessel, protect it and each other, Repel the Eldar filth, For the emperor! The collective three hundred thousand souls aboard his fleet roared their approval. Dominator’s innumerable weapon batteries roared even louder.

[Roma]

oh p.s, do any of you know the font black library use to accentuate words, e.g we HATE you, it looks lek some sorta italic but i cant find the right font in microsoft office word.

[Sigismund Himself]

Please remember that the B&C is for Power Armour related stories only ;) If you're looking for somewhere to post stories featuring the Imperial Navy/Xenos, I heartily recommend the Black Library Bolthole.

[Roma]

thank you, however whos to say tomhouser isnt a space marine ;) . But anyway, need to get a dakkadakka account manually activated, so thatl take a while. Il try the bolthole, but if possible leave the story.

[Dominicus]

Tomhauser couldn't be a Space Marine, ever. No Space Marine would listen to a xenos cry for a cease-fire during a space battle they are about to win, nor form a protective cordon around the same ships they were about to blow to smithereens.

 

Just saying.