Prologue

Medusa V was a dying world.

Nine armies had clashed on its surface. Nine armies had arrived on the doomed planet for their own reasons; some had come to protect, some to enslave, some to consume and destroy, some to preserve.

Even as the planet was fought upon, in space a greater threat approached with every passing moment.

Van Grothe's Rapidity. A Warp storm that threatened to swallow the planet within its writhing nightmare. It was once a peaceful and calm storm that was used for quick transportation, but now it had become unstable and was only a moment away from consuming the planet.

Like all Warp storms, Van Grothe's Rapidity was an extremely volatile medium. At times, disturbances could turn areas of the Warp into raging storms of incomprehensibly destructive fury. These storms could last for days or even centuries. Ships caught in these storms, at best, might be blown off course, to emerge thousands of light years off course into uncharted areas of the galaxy. Ships could find themselves trapped inside the Warp, a terrible fate for its passengers as they become playthings for the dark creatures that inhabit the malign realm. Sometimes a ship, after traveling through the Warp for only a short time, will emerge from the Warp and find that centuries have passed in real space. The storms also cut off Warp travel through certain regions, isolating systems for months, years or even centuries.

The planet below had gone relatively quiet; last of the Imperial forces had withdrawn from the system, the tau had retreated, the dark eldar had disappeared back into the Webway, the forces of Chaos had returned into the Warp, the necrons lay broken in the sands, the orks had escaped and the tyranid ships in orbit had become inanimate bulks floating aimlessly, apparently abandoned by the Hive Mind to their fates in the Warp storm.

The eldar had come to Medusa V to stop the necrons from rising again, to kill the leader of the Chaos forces, Ygethmor - who was killed by Elarique Swiftblade who in turn was killed by Ygethmor's men - and to close the Webway portal on the planet's surface, preventing easy access to the Craftworld of Alaitoc. The portal had been closed permanently after the last of the eldar on surface had retreated back into its serpentine corridors.

One ship, however, remained in the orbit. It was a Void Stalker named the Sword of Vaul. It was the last eldar ship to remain as the Warp storm drew closer.

Autarch Fetalque Swiftblade, brother of the deceased Autarch Elarique, stood atop the command dais of the Sword of Vaul.

His eyes watched the ship's crew manning all the stations in the bridge from behind his helmet, but his mind was elsewhere. He could only think of his sister, lying dead in the ruins with her spirit stone unclaimed.

"Autarch, the ship is ready to enter the Webway."

Fetalque waved his hand dismissively at the crew member without even looking at him. He sat down on the throne next to him, resting his hands on its arm rests. Mentally, he called up the casualty report of the campaign to his visor display, observing the numbers with great sorrow.

Fetalque put aside the report and concentrated on the main viewscreen instead. It showed Van Grothe's Rapidity edging ever closer to Medusa V and the ship. It was a terrifying thing to behold, to watch as the Warp overlapped the realspace, trapping ships, fleets and even planets into the Warp.

"Prepare to enter the Webway," called Fetalque quietly, barely audible but still everyone heard it. "Get us away from the storm, lest we are trapped within it with the planet.

Many eldar began to issue commands to the ship when suddenly a deep thump was heard. Alarms started blaring across the ship, signaling they were under attack. Bright red light illuminated the bridge as more crew members manned their stations. The main viewscreen flickered to show a tyranid ship closing the distance between the two ships quickly.

It was a Dark Prowler. It was a manta-shaped creature with leathery thick wings attached to a central cavity. The ship's central cavity contained two powerful acid-firing chambers, and hullgrinders lined its wings. These kind of ships were deadly if they were allowed to get to close range where its bio-acid weaponry could cause severe damage.

Fetalque cursed under his breath. It was unexpected for a tyranid ship that had been seemingly abandoned by the Hive Mind to attack the Sword of Vaul. He had underestimated the tyranids for the second time. The first time had almost cost him his arm to the surprise attack of the creature the Imperium called the "Deathleaper".

"Open fire with pulsar lances! Blast that thing apart!" ordered Fetalque as he stood up from his throne. "Make sure it doesn't survive!"

Two incredibly powerful bolts of energy shot forth from the Void Stalker, hitting the Dark Prowler dead-on. The lance shots pierced the hive ships carapace, spitting out ichor and blood from the wounds, but it didn't stop the creature from closing in. But the lance hits had still slowed it down enough for the Void Stalker to fire again. This time the lance bolts crippled the tyranid organism, spewing blood, ichor and acid all around it.

The moment of triumph was short-lived, however. Two more Dark Stalkers began to approach the ship, slowly and carefully this time, as if calculating how big a threat it was to them.

They didn't have to wait for long before they had their answer: two more bolts struck one of them, crippling it in a single hit to the center. The second ship opened fire with its acid cannons and hit the hull just above the lower port sail, corroding a nasty looking hole into the outer hull.

In return laser beams and missiles rained death upon it, blowing deep holes into its carapace and causing internal hemorrhage. The Sword of Vaul floated past the wounded Dark Prowler, before unleashing a point-blank shot from its pulsar lances. The bolts cut right through the tyranid ship, its halves leaking all kinds of foul fluids.

Suddenly, as the Sword of Vaul was about to draw distance to the incoming Warp storm, a ball of bio-acid hit its hull off the starboard bow, right above the frontal weapon batteries. Luckily it didn't harm the weaponry, but the acid did burn a hole into the hull, although not all the way through.

It was yet another Dark Prowler!

This time the bio-ship was flying towards the Sword of Vaul as fast as it could, firing its bio-acid cannons furiously. Driven by instinct, this creature was trying to do one thing and one thing only: destroy the eldar ship. It swooped towards its target, cannons spitting acidic balls to weaken the hull of the ship.

Just as the weapon batteries of the Sword of Vaul began to fire laser, missiles and plasma at the incoming the bio-ship, something unexpected happened: a damaged and battered Imperial Avenger class grand cruiser drifted lifelessly between the two warring ships. Before anyone could react, shots impacted on the ships hull and blasted through the huge gaps in the hull, lighting fires inside the ship that spread all around its interior, including ammunition stores and the reactor. The Dark Prowler crashed into the ship, plunging acid into the already unstable ship.

The ships moved towards the eldar ship from the force of the impact, stopping a good dozen kilometers away, but it was too late; the pulsar lances, which had been charging up to blow the tyranid ship to smithereens, fired a dual bolt of energy at the grand cruiser before anyone could abort the attack.

The cruiser and the bio-ship were hit dead-on.

The following explosion of the cruiser's plasma reactors engulfed the entangled ships, destroying them both utterly. Then the explosion was followed by the implosion of the Warp drive, wiping out everything near the spot occupied by the wreck a mere nanosecond ago.

Fetalque watched in horror as the Imperial ship exploded in a bright ball of plasma and debris. He gasped loudly in shock as the Imperial vessel vanished in an implosion of its own Warp core, threatening to engulf them as well.

Luckily the unnatural vortex only raged for a moment before it vanished all together, leaving the Sword of Vaul unharmed. That was far too close for comfort.

"Autarch!" yelled one of the crew members from his station near the front of the bridge. "The Warp storm! We are too close to it!"

"What?!" shouted Fetalque in shock and turned his attention back to the viewscreen.

Indeed, on the main viewscreen Van Grothe's Rapidity was close enough for it fill the whole screen. The storm seemed to grow ever larger, even though it was only moving toward Medusa V. To his horror, Fetalque realised the storm appeared to draw the ship towards it.

"Autarch, the storm is drawing us into it!"

"I know!" Fetalque gritted his teeth in concentration. He could already see the storm's eye in the center of the whirlpool of raw power practically glaring at the ship, small tendrils of ghostly energy trying grab the ship. Something had to be done, lest they were trapped in the Warp. "Full reverse!"

Crew members began to issue commands and the ship seemed to stay still, not moving forward or backward. That was a small relief, until...

"Engine power is failing!" yelled another crew member from his seat five yards to the front-right of the commander's dais. "The tyranid acids have penetrated the engine room."

Fetalque lowered his head in defeat. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked quietly as the ship began to move towards the storm.

"No, the Warp storm is too strong, but we could try to retreat into the Webway."

Fetalque turned his head to look to his right. There stood a warlock, dressed in blue robes and a yellow helmet. He knew who it was, the voice and the bloody, scarred shoulder guard gave it away. "Klerian, are you absolutely sure of this?"

"It is the only option left for us, Autarch," said Klerian as the ship shuddered violently.

Fetalque sighed in defeat and nodded. "Prepare to enter the Webway!"

His order was followed by a moment of silence and disbelieved stares, before it was carried out. A white swirl of energy appeared in front of the ship and formed a rift in the reality, but it didn't last long; the portal to the Webway closed almost immediately, leaving behind a faint outline of it as the Sword of Vaul plummeted through it, fading away just as the ship's bow touched the edge of the Warp storm.

Van Grothe's Rapidity continued onward to Medusa V without delay.

But somewhere else the Sword of Vaul emerged in a bright flash of light.

Well, what do you think?

Is is better than the last one?

Next chapter will be released when I finish it so don't expect it for at least a month.

Till then!