Chapter 369 The Lost Dog
After the first contact with the Eldar fleet, under the control of the navigator, Cursed Echo escaped over and over again.
Two days after its first emergency jump, the Cursed Echo sailed back to the true void, only to find a group of Eldar cruisers waiting quietly near the asteroid field.
Curse Echo can only jump again, using a twisted arc to avoid the path of enemy fire.
It rolled and dived, breaking out of the material world and entering the relative safety of subspace.
Three days later, it broke away from interstellar travel and drifted towards the center of the Tempest Sector, only to find that five Eldar cruisers were already circling the route.
As the Cursed Echo approached, the alien spacecraft adjusted the angle of its sails and detached itself from orbit to intercept the Eighth Legion warship.
They had to run away again.
The third time it left the warp, it was not slowed down by the Eldar blockade.
The echoes of the curse surged in the icy tide of real space, and the sides of the ship sang in the darkness, screaming and spitting fragrance at the alien spacecraft.
Skirmishes broke out in the process, and the Eldar warships banked and turned with uncanny grace as their solar sails were shattered by pulses of weapons from the Eighth Legion.
The Cursed Echo won a battle it could not win, concentrating all its retaliatory firepower to trap the xenos warships in the asteroid field long enough to force them back into the Warp.
But after that, the fourth, fifth, and sixth times, each successive appearance encountered stronger obstacles, and at the same time they flew farther and farther away from their intended route.
"They herded us like herds!"
Selion said as he returned to physical space for the eighth time, to which Talos just nodded.
"I know."
"We can't get to the Great Eye, brother, they won't let us go. You knew that in advance, didn't you?"
"I know. "
"No wonder you are so tough to change the course."
One week passed safely, and then they also stumbled through the second week, but by the third week... …
The cursed echo once again broke through the crazy clouds. It rode the purple lightning and agate-colored smoke all the way back to the material world. This time it did not enter the cracks in the subspace after a short stay, nor did it stop to collect their position and direction. Scan for enemies.
This time, the cursed echo returned to reality and continued to accelerate, its engines blaring.
The battleship moved forward among the psychedelic colors of the nebula, deep into the huge gas cloud.
Talos ordered the engine to continue roaring and push forward at maximum speed.
“There are no Eldar.”
Cerion looked at the scanner.
Taros then said:
“Go at full speed and bury the ship as deeply into the nebula as possible.”
When the attendants began to chatter, the sluice captain suddenly cried.
"Lord Talos, urgent——"
"The scanner is jammed."
Talos interrupted calmly.
"That's why we're here, I know, Lord Warlock."
Today, the First Claws gathered around the central throne to spend the night with their leader, the surviving Night Lords One by one, they walked up to the command deck and looked up at the eyeball monitors, watching in silence.
The continued pursuit of the Eldar made everyone highly nervous.
Several hours passed.
Talos occasionally allowed his eyes to leave the stars and glance at the tactical hologram.
For a long time, the holographic projection showed only stars and a gas planet spinning in the void, and nothing else.
“How long?”
Talos asked.
"Four hours."
Ma Kushen walked past the bow weapons console and looked down over the shoulders of the seven uniformed officers stationed there.
“Four hours and thirty-seven minutes.”
“The longest so far.”
“So far.
The Prophet sat forward in the ornate command chair, the Blood Angels' golden sword resting on one arm of the throne, his own bolter on the other.
It is a massive raised dais made of heavy black bronze, with the throne itself extending from the central podium overlooking the rest of the command deck.
Talos had always known that the mentality of most of those above him was one of standing above his fellow men in the Blood Pact. But the prophet didn't think so.
If anything, he felt separated from his loved ones, and it wasn't a comfortable feeling.
"I believe we are safe."
Selion said tentatively.
“Don’t say that.”
Talos replied, shaking his head.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Cerion listened carefully to the sound of the podium, which had its own unique melody: the friction of levers, the murmur of servants, the thump of boots.
"You should take a break."
He then said to Talos.
“When was the last time you slept?”
“I don’t remember.”
"You're kidding me."
The Night Lord looked shocked.
Talos turned to Sirion, his pale face tensed and his black eyes dull from sleeplessness.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?"
"No, you look like you died and forgot to stop moving, it's been three weeks now, you're so stupid, Talos...go and rest, I am here."
The prophet turned back to the eyeball display.
"Thanks, not now, unless we escape."
"What if I call the Skinner to teach you a lesson?"
"Valiel has already He told me about this."
Talos sighed regretfully.
"He had diagrams and everything, and he even wrote down the stresses in my head in great detail, citing numerous examples of the mobility restrictions that would result from depriving a soldier of sleep for two weeks."
"Good physiology lecture, I sometimes think he forgets that you were once a pharmacist."
Taros did not answer, he kept looking at the stars on the eyeball monitor.
Three whole weeks.
The Prophet thought as he had not slept since the endless chase began, and just hours after he killed the Astropath who cursed the Echo, the Eldar disappeared from the void.
How many times have they been in and out of the Warp since then?
How many times have they returned to real space only to find another Eldar fleet waiting for them?
Three whole weeks.
"We can't keep running, Selion. Octavia will die if we continue like this, and we will be trapped, and we will die in the end."
Selion looked up. The remains of Reuven upon his crucifixion.
"You killed the wizard, I almost regret it, his power should be a boon now."
Taros turned his tired eyes to his brother, there was something like amusement in that dark depths Something is shining.
"Maybe, but then we'd have to endure his endless talk."
"Well said."
He just finished this sentence As soon as he said this, an alarm sounded on the deck, and everyone suddenly united and there was "joy" on the deck.
"Damn pointy-eared things!"
"They found us."
Amidst Selion's curse, Talos leaned back weakly on his chair, his voice now is a tired whisper.
"Yes, they found us again..."
Then he pressed the button of the communicator
"Ottavia, I am Talos,"
(End of Chapter)