Beautification of the Inner Sphere 2 (Patreon)

Commissioned

Beautification of the Inner Sphere

Chapter 2

-VB-

The first thing she noticed… was the lack of Warp or the Warp as she recognized it. 

Dewani Shohran stood still where she had recovered from the abnormal warp exit. 

While others in the ship might feel nausea and the like, Dewani felt free for the first time. She had glimpsed it just before exiting. The warp. It was … It wasn’t the horrors that she had to fight back every time she unveiled her third eye. 

The Warp, or what passed for it here, was a place of nothingness. An eternal darkness. 

It would not have been so bad, because this oppressive silence was better than the unending horrors… if she could not see the Emperor’s Light. 

The Astronomicon was gone from her eyes. 

She could not see it. 

Her breathing came faster and faster. 

She clutched her chest. 

She gulped. 

T-The Lord Primarch must be told! 

She disconnected herself from her Throne. Her weak legs stumbled and she fell to her knees onto the floor. Her servants were quick to arrive to her side and helped her up. 

“I-I must speak with Lord Fulgrim!” she demanded. “Go! Tell him that Navigator Shohran needs to meet him as soon as possible! Our future depends on it!” 

The guard on duty saluted and quickly ran off.

Fool! 

They had a shipwide communication just outside the Navigator Throne room! What was he running around for?! Did he not know how big the ship was?! 

-VB-

On the bridge of the ship, a different sort of disaster was developing between the Primarch and his one of two high ranked sons by his side. 

Abdemon had never seen his Primarch act like this. 

His Primarch was Fulgrim the Illuminator. 

Even when he made strategies, he smiled and showed the best reflection of the Emperor that he could provide, however lesser it was compared to the Emperor. 

Even when battles turned sour and he had to dirty his hands, Lord Fulgrim did so with surety and certainty in all that he did. 

Even when he had disagreements with his brothers, the other Primarches, he did so with a smile on his lips, however tight it may be for the circumstances. 

Abdemon did not see any of those on Lord Fulgrim right now.

He saw … fear. 

He saw uncertainty. 

He saw … weakness. 

All of it sat buried beneath the current facade of grim determination that had come out of nowhere. 

“My lord?” he spoke up, and only then did he realize that he too sounded not like himself: weak, unsure, and shaky. 

Lord Fulgrim turned to him, and for a moment, Abdemon saw that fear, buried underneath the grim determination, and then saw it not quite disappear but transform as something else took place. 

Recognition.

Acknowledgement. 

Protectiveness. 

It was odd how Abdemon could make out all of the emotions his Primarch felt right now. Perhaps it was because he was close to his father that he could tell them. After all, not many among his brothers were able to tell the difference between father’s determined smile and happy smile. To most of them, he looked happy and that was good enough. 

“Abdemon. We are in trouble.”

… Uh oh. 

Lord Fulgrim never said that before. 

‘We found a new opponent to show our dedication!’

‘It seems my sons have been eating a lot more than before if we’re this slow in training!’

‘My sons, we face an adversity more troublesome than what we have encountered before! Let them see and feel why we are called the Emperor’s Children!’

‘Adjustments must be made to the strategy. Hurry.’

But never.

‘We are in trouble.’

Abdemon, despite the fact that he was supposed to be the calm one among his brothers, felt an ever so slightly growing panic.

“How so, father? Was it the weird warp exit that told you that?” he snarked. 

He snorted. “I wish it was that simple. No. It is the name of the planet and organization the planet claims to be part of.”

“You have heard of them, my lord?” he asked with naked surprise. 

Fulgrim… grimaced.

“We know that the Warp is a nebulous place with no true consistency.”

“I didn’t realize you wanted to give me a lecture so obvious, father,” he deadpanned. 

“We know that ships can come out earlier or later in time than what we expect of them.”

Suddenly, Abdemon felt a chill run up his spine. 

“Father… you are not suggesting -.”

Fulgrim didn’t say it. Not right away. But it was the hesitance itself that made Abdemon’s tiny panic grow. And the longer his father didn’t answer him, the deeper that panic became. 

Because… because if they were back in time, then they were not only far away in time from their destination but also his brothers and the rest of the Imperium.

Did that mean that they were in the Age of Strife? The Dark Age of Technology? 

Finally, his father opened his mouth to answer. “The Federated Suns, my son, is a pre-Dark Age human kingdom.”

He stood there staring at his father on the bridge.

…Pre?

Pre-Dark Age?

How many thousands of years were they in the past?! 

“My lord!” A serf-guard came stumbling into the bridge. “N-Navigator Shohran asks for an audience with you, Lord Fulgrim. S-She said that something is wrong with the Warp.”

Abdemon turned to look at the serf-guard before turning back to look at Father, and saw Father’s resigned face. 

His stomach sank like a rock.

Thousands of years into the past. Away from the Imperium. Away from the Great Crusade. Away from everything he knew and lived for. 

‘What about the others?’ he thought to himself.

“Father, my brothers -!” 

“It’s possible they are still in transit in the warp,” he hummed. “And there is no guarantee that they will come out here. Tancredi is within five hundred lightyears of Terra.”

… Chemos was more than ten thousand light years from Terra. Their destination was even further away. 

If they ended up so close to Terra… then what about his brothers?

For all they knew, they might be scattered across the entire galaxy filled with … with … xenos.

He felt sick.

“Abdemon.”

He immediately straightened. “Father,” he replied back and saw Lord Fulgrim looking at him expectantly. 

“Keep discipline on the bridge and across the ship. I must talk with Navigator Shohren.”

“Yes, sir.”

He watched his father leave the bridge, his cape billowing behind him, and then took a deep breath in.

He had a job now. 

It was simply in his nature as one of the Emperor's Children to do his job to the utmost of his ability. 

He turned back to the rest of the bridge, who stared at him with wide eyes.

“You heard our lord. Maintain discipline.”

-VB-

Tancredi, Federated Suns

Marshal George Powell of the 1st Crucis Lancers and the Bryceland PDZ stared at the image displayed before him.

Half an hour ago, a ship had appeared out of nowhere at the edge of the system, giving off so much exotic energy that it had been impossible for everyone in the system to miss, no matter where they were. 

So they looked. 

And found a giant warship.

What the fuck was he supposed to do?!