# Void's Ghost



## zboy234 (Dec 29, 2007)

_‘Imperial ships patrol the vast voids spanning between the planets His holy dominion, delivering his will and his warriors to the foes of Mankind, ancient technologies of man harness the heat of suns in the heart of these mighty leviathans, powering weapons of unimaginable destruction. With them the Imperium survives, without them the times of Old Night will come again....’_
*-Excerpt, Imperial naval primer*​




Lights danced around the Fervour, its batteries sending javelins of light and hails of building sized shells into the dark shadow, obscuring the cold light of distant suns. Devastating enemy volleys splashed against weakening void shielding. On the bridge of the imperial ship, havoc reigned; 
Men rushed to and fro, consoles blazed with light and a thousand sounds and voices filled the bridge deck, tech- adepts chanted over sparking consoles, incense burning everywhere, dead bodies flopped over shattered hunks of cognitors, the ship’s commissar bawling at the console officers to remain at their stations. Above this all on the command deck overhead, the chaos of the bridge went unnoticed. In his command throne Captain Harlan Guerin flinched as he felt his ship’s shields nearly give out, the data flooding through the connector mechendrites straight into his nervous system, it was like a million voices screaming out for attention, and the ageing captain mentally shoved the data away, using the pain from his sympathetic stigmatic wounds to focus his mind. He dove into the Fervour’s Manifold and immersed himself in the data flow.

< _Gun Servitor 165, Surrender firing protocols, confirm?_ > Ordered Guerin, his gilt vocaliser spurting out the binary message.

<_Confirm, Captain_> the gun servitor sent back, its vocal chords long removed.

Guerin sent his mind searching for the auspex officer’s mind link, <_Romilov, send auspex data, I want targeting solutions on enemy vessel_>

<_Data sending, captain_>

The captain’s mind swam with new information, his body responding to the raging reactors, his heart beating in synch with each new fury, he fed the Nova Cannon’s hungry energy cells, drowning all other sensations, his mind guiding and moving the cannon’s muzzle, aiming it at the dark enemy. Red crosshairs swam into focus on the enemy ship indicating critical weak points, he gathered his will, ignored the frantic screech of his auspex officer and fired, suddenly the bridge was flooded with harsh light and the captain knew no more.

Red emergency lighting flooded the hall; Karle held his naval primer close to his chest, the young boy flinched as the huge ship around him shook like a wet dog, the dull thumps, physically felt rather than heard told the story of the firestorm the Fervour was pushing through. “Don’t worry yourself lad” whispered one of the older hands, Fredric, the old man wielded his own scarred shotgun, a bionic eye glared out from his worn face, backlighting his long, steel grey hair, “the lord-captain knows his trade, he’ll see us through” Karle nodded, reassured by the old star-sailor, he went back to his own thoughts. Then boarding alarms sounded, red light flooded the halls and the security turret on the wall twitched into life, a slaved servitor hard-wired into the ceiling, the tech-corpse dully glaring at the sailors, Karle could swear he could hear the servitor determining if he was friend or foe, but the servitor moved its weapon away and began to scan the halls. Karle sighed and followed the rest of the sailors out of their quarter and to the nearest armoury. 


The ship had stopped shaking, her bridge silent, the command deck was gone, cooling slag marked the existence of a winding stair case but all that was above was gone, Ship’s Commissar Rafter stood amidst the floating corpses of the upper bridge crew, emergency void shielding keeping the bodies between the ship’s gravity projectors and the hungry blackness outside the shields. Rafter whirled around clumsily, his vac-suit hampering his movements, his mind suddenly reverted to ingrained training “I want damage reports now, alert the crew have them ready to repel boarders also summon the tech-priests, we need to regain control of the ship, and will someone turn that damn boarding alarm off!” Junior officers hurried away, trailed by servitors, scurry-jumping in the lessened gravity until only the commissar remained alone among the silent corpses.After the corpses were gathered by bulk servitors and taken down into the ship’s medicae decks Rafter found himself standing next to the ships senior surviving tech-adept, the adept’s quintet of eyes flashed as he surveyed the damage. Rafter broke the tense silence. “Can any of it be salvaged adept?” 
The adept turned and a spider-like construct climbed out from under the adepts hood and folded out the reveal a vox speaker, “Yes, Commissar, praise be to the Omnissiah, we should be able to regain control of eighty point three percent of the ship’s systems, however non crucial systems such as primary lighting will be lost, the damage was too extensive for some of the spirit’s to handle”
“How long will it take for repairs?” 
“One cycle, ship time, to complete all repairs” replied the adept, “However I predict that we don’t have enough time for proper repairs, I purpose that ship control should be moved to the Machine-Chapel”
“Agreed, Adept, have your priests start work immediately, the captain may have killed the enemy ship but auspex reports say that she launched hundreds of boarding craft before she died, conservative estimates put their arrival in three hours time, you have two” Rafter said, before turning and hop- walking to the exit. _Now I have to go locate a missing component of a fully functioning ship he thought_ to himself as he hopped along.

Colonel Abdul-Aziz Farraj watched his men pack away their prayer rugs and gather near the mess, lining up in platoons and filing in calmly and quietly, Roshep was about to follow when he nearly hit his head against a floating skull-drone, in it delicate mandibles it held a data slate, Roshep grabbed it and read it, once he finished his mood soured. He tapped the vox bead in his ear, “Major Bursuq, report to me”
Moments later the Major appeared, short for the usually tall and lanky Tallarn people, Bursuq saluted and waited for his superior to speak first.
“Read this Major” Farraj said, handing the slate to his subordinate. The moments spent in silence were like an eternity to Farraj.
“Sir, this isn’t good, even with our numbers and those of the ships defence crews that many assault craft hold nearly three times our numbers, and every one of them are desperate”
“I can imagine Major, but for all their numbers and their desperation, we have one thing they do not, we have the Emperor”
“May his name be praised and sanctified” intoned the Major.
“Indeed, after their meal, brief the platoon commanders and issue personal equipment to the men, I will have additional orders later”
“Colonel” Replied Bursuq, saluted and left. Farraj could already hear the major begin to issue orders over his vox bead. Quietly nodding with approval, Colonel returned the slate to the drone.
“Machine, I have another task for you”
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Been away from heresy for far too long, here's a story i had lurking on my 'puter enjoy.

Cheers,

Zboy234


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## Templar Marshal (Feb 7, 2010)

Good story and great to see im not the only aussie on here.


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## zboy234 (Dec 29, 2007)

your not, one of the best writers that used to be on the forum were aussies, once upon a time it was just us we ruled the fiction section, and a few new zealanders, but dont think about them  yeah it seems I'm just the last one here from when i started, cept for ploss though, he never leaves. its scary:grin:


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

its true... i'm always watching... :grin:

CP


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## Nikolai (Mar 16, 2010)

Hey, I enjoyed reading that. Looking forward to see who exactly these boarders are.


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## zboy234 (Dec 29, 2007)

UPDATE:
@Nikolai, thanks for the comment, and yes you will meet the boarders soon, but not yet:grin:, so enjoy the update.

_‘Only in death is your duty done’​_ *Inscription over the door of the Fervour of Faith’s brig​*


Karle stood unhappy in his new, uncomfortable flak armour, wondering how guardsmen wear it all the time, but even as he thought of how stupid he looked in the ill- fitting armour, then, unbidden, he thought of what could happen to him if he wasn’t wearing it, self preservation asserted itself and Karle forgot about the comfort and hoped it would wear in.
“Not the most comfortable things are they lad?” Fredric asked, shifting his own armour around. Karle looked at the grizzled veteran, shook his head, surprised to see the often hidden plugs and Fredric’s arms, but when the old man saw him looking he rolled his sleeves back down. Karle shrugged and leant back against the wall and relished the vibration humming through the wall, on the other side was one of the ships generators, which Karle, Fredric and a few other crewmen were supposed to guard.
“Don’t worry, you be thankful for these things later, word has come down, we’re to hold this until the guard get here, or so the rumours go” Fredric smiled and then the colour drained from his grizzled old face, he bellowed; “Officer on deck!” The crew quickly strained up and saluted flak armour and weapons clicking and clacking. 

Rafter smiled and continued to walk closer, returning his men’s salutes, resplendent in his black commissar uniform, white gloves glowing in the gloom, his black hair and squared face topped by a peaked cap; “At ease, Mr Holding, a word if you will” 
“Sir” Fredric said stepping forward and following the commissar as they walked out of earshot. Karle watched the conversation, the commissar’s face looked grim and Fredric stood like a statue, his face devoid of emotion, until the commissar said something and Fredric roared; “WHAT IN THE WARP ARE YOU THINKING? OFFERING MY RANK BACK AFTER TAKING IT OFF ME, GO FRAK YOURSELF, SIR!” the hall went very silent, the other sailor’s quiet conversations forgotten, each was trying to make himself believe what they just heard Fredric say. The commissar’s white, gloved, hand shot out and everyone flinched, expecting the gun shot but all they heard was a smack. The commissar slapped Fredric. 

“Listen carefully and don’t make me say this again, you are hereby promoted to captain, you being the most senior hand aboard and previously holding a command rank, also to ease things along you still have your implants, so we save time”
“You can’t do it, the regulations-” Fredric began.
“Are mine to interpret and enforce, we need you, you’re the only one other than Guerin that the Fervour will listen to” replied Rafter, “the ship must have a captain, it’s your duty”
Karle was surprised to see Fredric looking at him, he saw the old man’s expression soften for a moment before he turned away and then he heard Fredric’s words, “Alright, I’ll do it, I’ll be the captain”
“Good, knew you would see sense, God-Emperor be praised, come with me” and the commissar turned and walked back down the passage he’d come through, as Karle thought back on the moment later, he always remembered the sound of the commissar’s polished boots click-clacking on the hard, metal floor.

The Adept Senori intoned the prayers of reactivation and stood back from the cognitor, “Machine, may the Machine-God breathe half-life unto you and awaken” with a pitched whine the cognitor’s screen blinked on and the adept’s spirit’s soared, he would have smiled if he was still able to, but the riot of binary assaulting his aural transmitters reminded him of how much that was left to accomplish. All around him his machine- chapel was in the grips of carefully orchestrated chaos; heavy lifter servitors trundled palettes of cognitors into an ever growing pile, multi task servitors and the surviving tech-priests struggled to renew the cognitors back into working order, and countless crew from engineering were dragging heavy cabling and connecting the working cognitors to the ship’s spirits, over seen by their tech-priest overseers.

His auspex augments started alarming him to the presence of one of his subordinates. Without turning the Adept Senori buzzed a binary message

<_Yes?_>

< _Senori, the spirits of auspex have returned to their purpose._>

<_Acknowledged, that is good, go on with your programmed task._>

<_Senori, the spirits have become aware of incoming ships._>

<_Repeat last output._>

<_Senori, the spirits have become aware of incoming ships._>

The adept turned, absent-mindedly aware of his long defunct immune system sending high levels of chemicals into his organic components. <_Directive: Inform the Commissar of these developments, also have all tech-priests re-task and concentrate on critical exterior and interior defence systems, confirm receipt of message._>

<_Confirm, Adept Senori._> buzzed the tech priest before hurrying away.

Watching the other tech-priest hurry away the Adept Senori began to quickly cycle through the data wheels hidden in his body, searching for old programming from days before he joined the Fervour, days of death and ruin, days of being a Secutor, days of being a War-priest.

Rafter sat in his quarters, the ‘new’ bridge of the ship until Holding could be installed into the command throne and could properly take command of the Fervour, he had received a reply to his message from the guard commander, Colonel Farraj, the Tallarns would now be moving to secure the generators, machine-chapel, the ship’s armourium and the medicae decks, not soon enough, the anticipated arrival of the enemy was closing and fast. Rafter was considering mobilising the provosts and the defence crew when a breathless man wearing the coveralls of an engineer burst into his office. 
“Sir, reports from auspex spirits, enemy craft inbound” the man paused the struggled to keep his breathing in check, “They are nearly upon us!”
Rafter nodded and began accessing the ship’s controls through the cognitor in front of him, suddenly the ships boarding alarms sounded and the lights turned bloody red. 
“Thank you, report to your station” The man saluted and hurried out of the room, Rafter listening to the echoes of the man’s pounding feet bounce around his troubled mind, life for the soul aboard this ship would become very, very hard indeed.

The Tallarn guardsmen moved through the dark, red lit passages of the Fervour, ghost-like, and deadly. Sergeant Sa'd al Din felt pride in his men, and in his own skill as he led them, quieter than the rest, the Tallarn’s had been ordered to prepare ambushes for the enemy boarders, quietly half of 4th Company had dispersed through the ship, armed with lasgun and knife they would cut a swath through the infidel trespassers, their minds, bodies and souls singing the Emperor’s praises all the while. Suddenly the sergeant heard the dull bang of boarding clamps and signalled his men to take cover; each man aimed his weapon down the passage. Each man smelled the acrid stench of burning metal and the hiss as the molten metal dripped onto the flooring, smoke billowing, each man held his breath and waited, then heavy boots clunked onto the deck and as one the guardsmen opened fire.

Rafter ducked out of cover and emptied the clip of his autopistol down the passage, the thunder of the gun- servitors’ weapons installed overhead drowned out the sound of his own weapon, all around him the Fervour’s crew sent sprays of hot death at the boarders. Rafter ducked back into cover and reloaded his weapon, he breathed in and ducked back out, his weapon bucked in his hand, Rafter smiled savagely as he saw the indistinct, dark shapes of his enemies fall, when he ducked back into cover he finally felt his ear bead vibrating, he tapped it and the monotone voice of the Adept Senori filled his ears;

“Commissar, where are you?” Demanded the Senori

“Stuck with some boarders, port side, above the gun-decks” replied the commissar

“As I can see, I have combat servitors inbound, they will arrive in three-point-zero-eight minutes, when they arrive make your way to the machine-chapel, avoid combat commissar, the ship cannot adequately function without you” droned the Senori.

“Acknowledged, I’ll try not to die” Replied Rafter, infusing as much sarcasm into his voice before shutting off the link, looking at the glowing dots set in his autopistol’s grip he saw he was down to three shells, the extra magazines he always had on him were scattered on the floor where he had dropped them in his haste to reload. All around him crew were ducking in and out of alcoves, furiously pumping shells into the smoke at the end of the passage. Whilst he was talking with the Senori the enemy had crept closer, no longer obscured by the smoke and steam from the end of the hall the enemy was revealed for all to see. Rafter saw them and his heart skipped a beat.
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More due in a few days.... you know what? lets make it in a week. I'll update each week on a Friday, if I dont, feel free to yell at me as much as you want, the reason why the update probally hadn't come is; i'm being a slacker

so I shall see you all in a week.

Cheers and good reading,

Zboy234

P.S you know the thing santa does to check on kids for the christmas list? yeah, Commissar Ploss can do that, so be good.:grin:


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