"A Warp map," he said after a moment. "A basic misconception. You can't map the Warp. That just doesn't work."
Aleya used Thoughtmark to try to tell him to look at it anyway and to tell her what he saw, but since he didn't understand Thoughtmark, she had to use very basic nonverbal cues.
'I don't care. Tell me what it means.'
Slovo turned around again, catching her meaning and looked at the markings more closely now. He sneered lightly, as it disgusted him, and he felt where this came from. But he took the time to find out exactly what it was.
"I see what they're doing," he said after a moment. "These are representations, like those you can see in major channels of the Warp. These are capable of bringing a fleet down, and they have been getting narrower... I think I already reported this to you. The cult you got this from probably knows why."
He looked at it again and considered a possibility.
"Maybe this is... or maybe not... well..."
'Say it,' Aleya signed.
Slovo was pulled from his thoughts by the gesture and looked at her, irritated. She could see the anger and hatred he had for her at that moment. Slovo understood why he hated her and where that hatred came from.
She was a Pariah, a Blank, and he was a psyker; this was natural, and for him to be in the same room was already torture. Hatred was a natural reaction.
He suppressed the anger as well as he could, but sometimes, like when he wasn't paying attention to it, it would erupt and overwhelm his control. Like just now.
He took a breath and turned around again.
"In theory, it is possible to travel anywhere in the universe through the Warp. However, the shifting tides of the Warp make it easier to travel from some star systems to others, and short Warp jumps are always more accurate than longer ones. This is particularly true when moving a large fleet, which may spread out over several light-years during an extended journey.
Long-established and well-charted Warp channels connect star systems and entire regions of the galaxy, providing relatively predictable conduits through which the majority of Imperial shipping passes.
Now, the question I am asking myself is this: What if they knew this was going to happen, the narrowing of the channels? If they knew some channels were going to close and some would open, they would only have to keep control over those that open and gain a real strategic advantage."
Aleya listened to Slovo in earnest. She knew about the Warp channels, but hadn't thought about it this way. She also hadn't realised that the blood strokes on the flesh were such channels.
"Because at the mouths of those newly opened Warp channels, worlds would be located, and the archenemy could then pour their filthy crafts down those channels and occupy those planets.
But they would have to coordinate strikes over a huge span of space, and they would also have to be right about all of it, but the Warp always changes. I don't think it's possible."
Aleya shook her head. She had long gotten used to what was once thought impossible becoming reality. So she didn't trust Slovo's judgement on this at all. The implications were so terrible that it might just be true.
Aleya looked at the map herself. It seemed to move like an illusion, and although she was not affected by its chaotic energy, it still felt disgusting. The map was not anything like the map from the materium; it was different. It differed from the cartographic records.
It showed the relationships among the planets within the Warp, which were in constant flux. No static map of this would or could ever be produced.
At the centre of the map, more circles and pentagrams overlapped. There seemed to be a lot of attention and importance placed on the particular planet. There was only one planet she could think of that might be this important to the archenemy.
"Can you read this rubbish?" Slovo asked.
'This should be Terra,' Aleya signed, knowing that Slovo knew the one sign for 'Terra'.
"Well, I can't read it. There are other cardinal worlds out there - Cadia, Hydraphur, Mars. I can't make a judgment, and I don't have one. Not from this abomination I see here."
Aleya sent Slovo away and looked at the map once more. The signs on it were for 'traitor' and 'corrupted eyes'. She was an anathema psykana, and if Slovo couldn't understand and read it, she wouldn't be able to either.
She thought about the sentence Lokk had written again. 'He calls His daughters Home.' Was the important planet truly Terra?
Aleya didn't know, but still she had made her choice. She made her way back to the command bridge, where Erefan was waiting patiently for her to decide. The Cadamara had reached deep space and was cruising around, waiting for her.
"Your orders?" he asked as she entered.
'Run silent, hold once out of system range,' Aleya signed.
"But we're heading into the Warp. What's the intention?" Erefan asked.
'We're going to the Throneworld.'
"Sir! Something just came out of the Warp at the Mandevillepoint of the system!"
"Huh?"
.
The travel through the Warp turned out to be less pleasant than they'd hoped and thought.
"Travel has always been difficult between the stars, and it has been getting worse over the past few years," Lencillus said.
Gerhard was keeping watch over all the sensor arrays and screens he had integrated, as well as the board computer, ensuring he had all the information he needed.
As he tried to look into the Warp to gather information about it, the strangest things happened.
His skills, [Intermediate Warp Manipulation] and [Blank], levelled up right away and continued to do so the longer he used them. These two seemed to be connected, and when one of them increased, the other did as well. It was these two that held his existence in balance and allowed him to be the biggest cheat this galaxy had ever seen.
Something wasn't right; he could feel it.
Two days had passed already, and during those days, Gerhard was the most focused among all those on board. Not even Hestia, who was even more tense than usual, was as focused as he was.
The reason he felt that way was that he had a bad premonition and a very good idea. He was their Navigator on board, and he was doing this against his better judgment.
As he opened himself up to his psyker abilities, the side he usually kept locked down and in balance with the Blank skill, he felt uneasy, greatly so.
After the gate within was opened, Gerhard could see the Warp as it truly was. The Navigator's mind would protect itself by providing a comprehensive allegory for the incomprehensible.
The more the Navigator spent in the Warp, the allegorical view would fade, and the true reality of it would start to settle, nonetheless never fully allowing for comprehension of its whole nature.
For Gerhard, this was different. [Gamer's Mind] showed its absolute cheat aspect. Gerhard saw the Warp for what it was, a literal sea of energy that was mostly corrupted and coloured with endless emotions.
[Intermediate Warp Manipulation has levelled up]
[Blank has levelled up]
[Warp sense has levelled up]
[Warp sense has levelled up]
There was a problem, though. Each time Gerhard wanted to look out, the Sisters had to stop infusing their 'null-fields', and the ship was less protected.
At first, Gerhard thought about setting a course and then leaving it, just making sure they stayed on course. But that didn't work. The Warp was endless, infinite energy, yes, but it didn't work as a regular ocean did.
Gerhard had to keep watch at all times. And that was very, very bad.
When Gerhard was in his base state, he was almost transparent in the Warp. The equilibrium of his Psyker and Blank existence had this beautiful effect. But when he needed to use the Warp, that changed.
Right now, Gerhard glowed in the Warp, like a relatively small lighthouse, whenever he used his psyker abilities to navigate.
The reason for this was the [**** *****] skill, which was still at level 1.
The vessel took a hammering and shuddered as they made their way through the Empyrean. And what's worse, Gerhard felt the pressure against his temples; it was the "savage ocean" the lore spoke of, pressing against the hull and his mind.
He adjusted his focus, integrating what he knew of the Empyrean's mechanics into his current struggle once again.
Unlike the "folded space" of ancient sci-fi lore like Star Wars, Gerhard knew they weren't simply jumping from A to B. The space between Point A and Point B was, in fact, NOT 0. They were travelling. The shortest distance between two points in the Warp might be a straight line, but in this psychic soup, a straight line might as well be a death sentence.
To stay on course, he had to fight the "tides", akin to massive, swirling currents of raw emotion and malicious energies that tried to drag the ship into the waiting maws of the Abyss at random.
He took out his tarot deck and levelled up the [Tarot reading] skill. This was his way of cheating.
'Should we remain on this course?' he asked in his mind.
He turned one card over, revealing it to be the death card.
This could be interpreted in different ways. The easiest one was: No.
Gerhard asked the question again and again, each time getting the same answer.
"Hestia, stop it for another moment," he said over the comms, as he had to take another look.
'Should we change our course?' Gerhard asked and got another card.
That's what he did over and over again, making sure to keep asking yes-or-no questions and not having to interpret too much. He didn't have a lot of skill with it yet, and he was inside the Warp, so he didn't want to attract any more attention than necessary.
Little did he know, he already had.
.
Normally, the journey from Arraissa to Ludos Prime took several months. The Anathema Psykana had made it in two months, since they had been closer that time. But with Gerhard, they took far less. He realised why most captains never dared to leave the charted routes. To deviate was to enter a region of the Warp, where time and energy flowed differently.
Time was relative, and within the Warp, you could even travel through time quite easily if you weren't careful. It was even possible to come out of the Warp earlier than you had entered it, making you exist in two points in the galaxy at once.
That's how ridiculous the Warp was.
Through the careful use of his new, increased skill level in [Tarot reading] and [Warp Sensitivity], they actually managed to make insanely good time and were about to arrive just in time before disaster struck.
Far sooner than expected, the 'Mother Pusbucket' jumped out of the Warp and arrived at the Mandeville point of the Arraissan system. The Warp drive opened, revealing the planet they were aiming for.
Quest Complete
| +500,000 EXP gained
| Increased favourability with Hestia, Kaelen and Liora
| Skill [Void Walker] received.
-
Gerhard didn't get time to be happy about this, though.
[Danger Sense]
Gerhard's danger sense went off, and he realised what the reason for that was in the next moment. A larger ship, a large transport ship, about 1 kilometre long, was right in front of them, and from the looks of things, they were just about to jump into the Warp.
'That's the Cadamara!' Hestia signed as she arrived on the deck.
"You know this ship?" Gerhard asked?
'It's the Cadamara! That means some of the others might have survived!" Kaelen signed excitedly.
'It's the transport ship of our enclave,' Liora explained.
"That is an extremely lucky occurrence. To arrive here this early... You surprise me time and time again, Gerhard," Lencillus remarked.
It was true. Gerhard had managed through skill and luck and massive amounts of cheating to 'ride' the Warp currents so well that he didn't create a paradox, but he arrived basically, a few hours after they had jumped in. That was ridiculous and shouldn't have been possible.
And yet, it had happened.
"We're getting a message," Sera Vahl interrupted.
{This is Captain Erefan of the Cadamara. Identify yourself!}
"Quite an arrogant man, it would seem," Gerhard said and answered.