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Cover

Incident at Stranivar - Gordon Rennie

About the Author

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

Incident at Stranivar

Gordon Rennie

“A good ship, the Macharius. Not the fastest ship in Gothic Sector, nor the most powerful, but a good ship nevertheless.”

The words of Admiral Haasen ran through the mind of Leoten Semper as he stepped for the first time onto the command deck of the Macharius.

'Present salute!' bellowed a bosun. 'Captain on deck!'

Semper paused, savouring the moment. Captain on deck. How many times had he himself snapped to attention at those words, first as a young cadet officer and latterly as Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Haasen aboard the squadron flagship Czar Nevsky?

The officers and crew of the command deck stood to attention all around him, the low lighting of the command deck reflecting dimly off the shining buttons and gold braiding of their dress uniforms. Only the half-human, half-mechanical servitors, hardwired into the electronic pulse of the ship's operating systems, did not acknowledge the presence on deck of the Macharius' new captain.

'At ease,' Semper ordered, returning the salute of an aristocratic-looking young officer who stepped smartly forward to meet him.

'Captain Semper. First Officer Hito Ulanti reporting, sir. Welcome aboard. Vessel and crew awaiting your orders.'

'Status?' Semper asked, noting with surprise the characteristic clipped tone of Necromundan Upper Hive nobility in the accent of his new second-in-command.

'We have completed our maintenance checks and restock of munitions and supplies three days ahead of schedule,' reported the young officer, with more than a hint of pride, 'We are on spacedock stand-down orders awaiting the rest of the squadron's final resupplying. All senior officers are aboard with the exception of Commissar Kyogen, whose shuttle has been delayed by an ion storm on Stranivar.'

No Commissar watchdog to keep an eye on me, thought Semper, staring out at the eerily hypnotic cloud patterns of the planet that dominated the scene through the command deck's arched viewing ports. For the first and probably last time, I really am master of my own ship. I should take full advantage of this opportunity while I still have it… He turned to the waiting First Officer, issuing his first captain's order. 'All crew to duty stations, mister Ulanti. Power up engines and weapons systems. Let's take her out and see what damage a few weeks in spacedock has done to us!'

Officers and crew scurried to carry out his orders. Semper stood on the bridge of the command deck, feeling the comforting rumble from deep within the bowels of the ship as powerful plasma reactors flared into life. He closed his eyes, imagining the frantic activity now happening below decks. Petty officers storming through crowded crew quarters, screaming orders and lashing out at any crewman not moving fast enough to get to his station. Sweating gunnery crews toiling to load the huge macro-shells hoisted up by elevator from the ship's arsenal. Tech-priests and engineering officers intoning the proper rites of protection as they monitored the enormous energy levels now flowing through the wakening ship's power systems.

'Manoeuvring thrusters activated. Umbilicus disengaged. We are now leaving spacedock,' reported Ulanti as Semper felt the lurch of the cruiser sliding away from its orbital berth. Glancing through the port viewing bay, he could see the familiar shape of the Nevsky still cradled in the latticework of its own spacedock. Even from this distance - about fifty kilometres, Semper estimated with a practised spaceman's eye - the venerable old battleship looked enormous, and the swarm of maintenance ships and supply shuttles buzzing about the spires of its superstructure only added to the impression of a bloated insect queen being fed and pampered by minion drones. Beyond, he could see a long series of other spacedocks and orbital defence platforms; the home base of Battlegroup Stranivar, strung out like a long necklace of pearls around the world and its triple moons.

Semper frowned, noticing how many of the spacedocks were still occupied. We should have more ships out on patrol, he thought.

'Signal from the Nevsky, sir,' relayed a communications officer. “Attention, Macharius. You are in breach of orders. You are either a traitor trying to steal one of the Emperor's warships or another hotshot captain keen to earn his spurs.”

Semper smiled, recognising the distinctive humour of his old mentor. Despite their differences, Haasen had not hesitated to recommend him for the captaincy of the Macharius.

'Captain!' Semper turned at the urgent tone in the voice of one of his tech Officers. 'Surveyors have detected multiple incoming engine signatures! We have unauthorised vessels within strike range of Stranivar!'

'It's an attack!' bellowed Semper, seeing the starfield ahead of the Macharius pinpricked with the flares of rapidly closing plasma engines. 'Void shields to maximum. Go to battle stations. Stranivar Base is under attack!' At his signal, the communications officer opened up an internal comms channel. 'Captain to all gunnery decks. Target of opportunity fire - if it doesn't carry an eagle emblem, vaporise it!'

Emperor's oath, there's so many of them and they've caught us unprepared! thought Semper as he saw the baroque outlines of the first wave of Chaos vessels highlighted by the harsh light of Stranivar's star. The ship shuddered under the impact of the blasts detonating against its void shields. Semper looked to Ulanti for confirmation of what he already knew.

'Stray shots,' nodded the First Officer. 'They're going after the Nevsky and we just happen to be in the line of fire!'

'Bring us about! We'll protect the flagship with our own guns until it has cleared spacedock,' Semper ordered, already recognising the futility of this manoeuvre. The Nevsky could not engage its void shields while in spacedock and a ship of that size and age needed time - too much time - to power up its engines and weapons batteries. Czar Nevsky was a sitting target, and everyone on the command deck knew it.

Semper held on to a deck rail as the long bulk of the Macharius swung ponderously round in space, bringing the scene in orbit around Stranivar into sharp focus. Explosions and energy beams filled the void as the Chaos ships - all fast escorts, Semper saw - savaged Battlegroup Stranivar. He saw one Lunar class cruiser explode, falling to the incandescant fury of several plasma torpedo hits midships as it struggled to clear spacedock. One of its sister ships avoided a similar fate by going to full thrusters and smashing its way out of spacedock, violently severing its still-attached umbilicus. In the light of the explosions, Semper could see a cloud of debris spreading from the fractured accesway, and he knew it was those trapped inside the umbilicus spilling out into hard vacuum. Elsewhere, a munitions platform disintegrated in a spectacular fireball, the blast annihilating everything around it. And then there was, the Nevsky, caught helpless in spacedock as deadly energy lances punched deep wounds into its hull.

Suddenly, he saw a group of three Chaos Raiders racing alongside the Macharius, heading for the stricken flagship. At his command, the weapons of the Macharius opened fire as one. The lead Raider exploded in a hail of macro-shells and lasblasts. As they passed across the prow, the other two were forced to break off their attack and evade sharply as the Macharius sent a spread of torpedoes rocketing towards them. Semper allowed himself a grim smile of satisfaction as he saw one of the missiles erupt into smaller warheads, catching one of the targets in a storm of fiery detonations. A shout from Ulanti brought him back to his duties.

'The Nevsky, sir! She's dying!'

The sight was both awesome and terrifying: the Nevsky in its death-throes as a long series of internal explosions ripped through her hull. Semper saw its port side split open and a long plume of white-hot plasma erupt out into space. He knew then that he only had seconds to save his own vessel. 'Core breach!' he screamed at his ashen-faced command crew. 'Hard to starboard and divert all power to void shields!'

First came the light, brilliant and searing, and then the darkness as the photochromatic filters of the command deck's viewing ports turned pure black to protect the crew inside. After that came the blast wave, overloading the void shields and lashing against the hull of the ship.

Semper picked himself up from the deck, wondering why he didn't hide himself away inside an armoured command shell as so many other Captains did, and ordered the viewing filters off, steeling himself for the sight outside. The Nevsky was gone. All that remained of it were several huge still-burning fragments which were slowly sinking down into the gravity well of Stranivar, where they would set alight city-sized bonfires that would probably burn for months.

Semper sensed the presence of his First Officer. 'The raiders are retreating back into the warp, sir,' reported Ulanti. 'Estimate about half the battlegroup has survived, although none of us are spaceworthy enough to go after them.' The young Necromundan paused, lost for words to describe the scale of the disaster. 'The… the Nevsky, that seemed to be what they were after… a hit-and-run attack on the flagship.'

Semper stared out into the starfield of open space, trying to imagine the conflict to come. 'This was no hit-and-run raid. This was a first strike, the opening shots of full-blown war. I pray to the Emperor I'm wrong, Mister Ulanti, but I fear there is worse - far worse - to come…'

About the Author

Gordon Rennie is the author of the Warhammer 40,000 novels Execution Hour and Shadowpoint, both set during the Gothic War, the Warhammer novel Zavant and the Necromunda novel Blood Royal, with Will McDermott. He wrote many comics for Black Library, including Deff Skwadron, three volumes of the Blood Angels series Bloodquest, two volumes of Kal Jerico and a run on the Adepta Sororitas series Daemonifuge. He lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A Black Library Publication

First published in Warp Storm in Great Britain in 2000.
This eBook edition published in 2021 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by Richard Wright

Incident at Stranivar © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2021. Incident at Stranivar, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
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