Editing Ghosts of Rage (Warhammer High) (section)

=== The Forgotten World ===

As the captain had said, a couple hours passed before an announcement said they were close to their destination. Soon enough, the ship came out of warp and approached the planet she had long sought. Furia had been so excited for this moment that she had waited the remaining time in the transport shuttle, not wanting to miss leaving at all. She sat in the co-pilot's chair, her belongings were in a bag beside her, the same one she had when she left Terra a year ago.

She couldn’t believe that number. One year had passed since she had left her home. So much had happened since that she began to wonder what Terra was like now. Her thoughts eventually focused on the two people she wanted to talk to the most: Isis and Simon. She wondered how their lives had gone without her, hopefully better now that she was out of the way.

Indeed, one year of travelling the galaxy in search of her home planet. Without context, most people would assume she had taken her time, but this was far from the fact. Nenavist was a bitch to find. She had originally checked the Astropath department back on Terra, but no records could find a planet or system called Nenavist.

So for a better part of a year and half, she travelled blindly through the stars, jumping from ship to ship, port to port in search of a planet that might not even exist. For a while there, she imagined her grandfather had tricked her, giving her a false name in hopes of leading her off. Still, a part of her believed, and she was thankful she did.

It was only four months ago that the name Nenavist finally emerged as a location. It was apparently a new mining world near the border between Segmentum Tempestus and Pacificus. She had looked at the star charts in the area in detail and no Legion Homeworld was nearby.  She wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but it was a step forward after a single year.

Lights in the transport turned on as someone entered behind Furia. She turned her head and grinned at the young pilot who stared back at her.

“A bit early, aren't we?” he asked her as she stepped forward.

“Didn’t want to miss the shuttle down.” The man walked up and sat in the pilot chair beside her. He glanced at her quickly before returning his attention to the ship. Flipping some switches, she felt the floor beneath her shake as the shuttle came to life.

“Normally, I’d tell you to wait in the back, but I don’t mind having a cute girl sitting up front with me. Plus, I don’t want to give our cargo the chance to ogle you all the way down.”

“Cargo?” she asked him.

He nodded slowly as he continued to check out the controls. “Ten prisoners for labor down on Nenavist. The planet usually gets a shipment every couple of months to work the machines and such. If they carry out the remainder of their sentence in peace, they can live out the rest of their lives on the planet. Better than dying at the edge of an ork axe in a penal legion, in my opinion anyway.”

She nodded slowly, knowing how most criminals would be sent to penal legions if their crimes were unforgivable. This way, they would die for the glory of the Imperium. Three months on a prison ship would teach you much about how the system worked.

The pilot keyed the intercom on the ship as he spoke. “Command, am I clear to take off?”

Several seconds passed before an acknowledgement was sent. “You’re good to go S-244. See you in a bit.”

The shuttle began to shake harder as thrusters lifted the massive hulk upwards into the launch bay. A second later, the pilot pushed his joystick forward as the ship leapt forward out of the bay. It passed through the atmosphere field into vacuum, racing towards the planet below.

Furia looked through the small viewport eagerly. She had been searching for it for over a year now and, wondered what she would find on the surface below. The entirety of the ground was caked in red with small parts of black to break apart the uniformity. It looked almost like marble from so high above.

“What do you know about Nenavist?” Furia asked the pilot.

He shrugged. “It’s a shit hole really. Colonized just under two decades ago, Mechanicum had scanned a large amount of minerals available for mining. Set up shop soon after to send back a large quantity of materials for the forges in the core.” He tapped the screen. “I don’t know if you can understand any of this, but the planet is riddled with blast craters.”

She looked at him curiously. “Meteors?” she asked.

“Nope, this is weapons fire. Planet was bombarded a while ago before it was colonized. Looks like capital ship weapons too. I think a major battle took place here during the crusade.”

“How do you know something like that?” she asked him.

He grinned at her, feeling a bit confident. “I used to be a pilot in the navy. Flew bombing missions in the Void Walks against the orks.” Furia realized he meant the war just a year ago, during the time she had run away. Orks had invaded a trade lane deep in the Ultramarines backyard, having created much havoc in their wake. “Got my commissions and found out that I just didn’t enjoy Dakka jets on my ass. This job is nice and simple.”

She nodded slowly as she stared at the planet some more. Indeed, she could note a large amount of rock debris in orbit around the planet. She wondered who fought who, and who won in the end. Most likely them as they suddenly owned the area.

Her eyes picked up a shadow near the edge of the planet and pointed at it through the small windows. “What’s that?” she asked him.

Glancing over, he looked back at the many screens on his dashboard and nodded. “Another ship in orbit. Small, a frigate or destroyer. Imperial markings make it a navy ship.”

She felt a knot in her stomach form. A navy ship over the planet she was landing? She didn’t like that at all. Maybe it was a trap from her grandfather, having set her up to come here eventually to bring her back home. But it seemed kind of small to fetch her in the end.

“What kind of ship is it? Space Marine?” she asked quickly, wondering if this was a bad idea. A part of her wondered if it was a World Eater ship, in orbit of her possible homeworld, or a possible recruitment world near their the legion’s planet.

He chuckled at that suggestion. “Space marine? Warp no. That’s just a regular patrol ship. They make trips around the segmentum often enough to check out if everything is alright. Probably will be gone in a day or two after they’ve completed their paperwork.”

This calmed her down a bit as she leaned back into the chair, on the edge a moment ago. Still a chance it was a trap, but she had to try anyway. She had come so far for her to be scared off by one ship.

A second later they passed through the atmosphere, the shaking stopping soon enough as they clear their way down to the planet.

The pilot glanced at her, and his stare lingered. She frowned at him as he kept looking. “What?”

“You’re Kate Gunnar right? Hero from the riot a day ago?”

She smirked at that and looked away. “So what if I am?”

“Nothing. Just didn’t think a girl that took out so many prisoners would be so sexy.”

She shook her head. “You always hit on girls while flying?” she asked him.

“Hey, gets me out of the way of orks and into girls such as yourself.” He smiled even harder, and she could imagine he felt successful with his attempts of seduction.

“Get in my way and you’ll be losing that joystick,” she said.

He laughed at that as he approached the port up ahead. It was a large complex she could only assume to be the central port for the planet. It was a tall building with many landing pads on the side. The very architecture of the structure was a good telling that this was indeed a Mechanicum planet. It had no curves of any sort and
did not seem aesthetically pleasing in any way.

“Well, listen. The Gradgral isn’t scheduled to leave orbit for another week. Transfer of additional prisoners, paperwork, refuelling. I got some time to spare while we are here. You wanna go to a bar and have a drink or two? My treat.”

She sighed as the shuttle came up towards the metal landing pad. Within seconds, the craft landed with ease even with the pilot looking at her the entire time. She had to admit that it was kind of impressive.

“No thanks. You seem too quick when it comes to your approach.” She grabbed her bag and got up, walking to the door. The pilot swung around in his chair as he left.

“Come on babe! I got plenty of fuel!” he yelled after her, but she didn’t stop as she made her way out.

The ship’s side door opened as a ramp pulled down to the surface. Immediately, Furia felt the intense heat and humidity of the planet. It felt like she had stepped into a sauna.  She could feel herself sweating as she stepped down unto the cement landing pad.

She looked around the dusty area as she tried to find her way to the inside of the starport. Servitors walked up to the ship, sporting several tools and tubes for maintenance on the vessel. Making her way past them, she turned her head slightly as the back door of the shuttle opened. Out came several guards, pulling out the “cargo” of the ships. The large prisoners looked at her as she walked past them, growling at displeasure at their new home. She stared back for several seconds before looking away, not wanting to taunt them further. One fight was enough this week.

Up ahead she noted the open hatchway to the inside of the port, which she quickly jumped in to hide from the rays of the sun. The insides of the building were air conditioned, something Furia welcomed greedily as she stood for a moment, having a breather. Looking around her, she found herself in a large open room that clearly told her this was a mechanicum planet.

The ceiling was a web of tubes and wires, some dropped down to power the equipment in the room itself. The large majority of people in the room had at least one apparent augmentation. No one immediately noticed her entrance as the twenty or so workers of the facility scrambled around to their work. It was a couple minutes of her just standing at the side when eventually one of the augmented workers stopped and stared at her. She stared back, not backing off even with his two infrared eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her rudely. His mechanical arm whirred at his side impatiently. Furia braced her sudden jolt of anger as she realized she wasn’t going to like the locals very much.

“I’m looking for the naval registry.”

“Why?” he asked immediately. She could imagine that this conversation was way too slow for him. She used this against him.

“Cause I want to look at it,” Furia growled slowly, taking her time with every word. His arm clenched, giving away his unhappiness with her slow response.

“Listen unenlightened, you don’t come in here with your damn requests. So why don’t you take that snotty attitude and shove it up you-”

“You! Stop harassing the girl!

It was lucky that someone else interrupted him, or Furia was about take his mechanical arm off and use it against him. From the side walked a red robed figure, clearly a techpriest. If it wasn’t for electronic female voice, Furia wouldn’t know that this one was a woman. It was hard to tell, as most of the figure was a collection of tubes and lights and mechanical appendages with instruments she could not recognize. Her head was hidden under the typical red robe that adepts of the Mechanicum wore.

“This is no way to treat a guest, no matter if they are blessed to be able to support the gifts of the Omnissiah or not.”

“My apologies priestess.” Without another word, the man bowed and backed off, returning to his duties. The priestess turned to Furia and nodded.

“I apologize for his behaviour. Some of the new recruits are a bit too devout for their own good. What brings you to the Nenavist colony?”

Furia was quick to the point, not in the mood for a lengthy conversation that would lead to them trying to induct her into their cult. “Where is the naval registry?”

“You came all this way to see our naval registry?” The electronic voice was strange to Furia who had never really been around tech priests in her life.

“How do you know I travelled here?” Furia asked suspiciously. The techpriest shrugged.

“Your accent is from the inner colonies. It is quite obvious with the way you speak so informally.”

Furia paused and reflected on her choice of words, suddenly self conscious in the way she spoke. It was several seconds before she responded as she pushed such ideas aside. “Can you show me the registry or not?” she asked, becoming impatient.

“No need to be hostile on the matter. Follow me and I will lead you to our data centre.”

Without another word, the red robed priestess turned and walked away to a nearby exit. Furia followed closely behind, glaring at the man who she spoke to earlier. He did the same to her with his beady red eyes.