Journey to the Rock Fortress

The bridge of the Inquisition Black Ship Gabbro was shrouded in an almost stagnant solemnity.

Only the low hum of the cogitator arrays and the faint glow of data streams crossing the screens proved that time was still moving.

Beyond the vast observation window lay the receding Azure Dawn system.

That azure planet, once like a teardrop of the Emperor, had now become nothing more than an ugly sphere wrapped in gray-brown deathly haze and purification fires not yet fully extinguished.

Like an indelible blackened scar upon exquisite porcelain, it hung silently against the velvet-black backdrop, recounting the brutal purification that had just ended at the cost of countless lives.

The deep drone of the Warp engines warming up echoed through the depths of the vessel like the breathing of some great beast before it awoke.

It heralded the beginning of another voyage, one whose destination remained uncertain.

Chen Xi stood with his back to that dead star system, his posture straight despite the faint exhaustion he could not conceal.

His gaze rested on the two blinking routes displayed across the tactical hololith.

His fingers unconsciously tapped against the cold metal edge of the console.

One was the safe route back to Rostov Prime, where mountains of administrative work, urgent postwar reports, and the relatively familiar whirlpool of power awaited him.

The other was an encrypted navigational beacon provided by the Blade of Repentance Chapter, leading toward the Dark Angels' mobile fortress, the Rock Fortress.

That route led to ten-thousand-year-old secrets, iron discipline, and unpredictable danger.

Auregana stood silently at one side, the bronze skull servo-arm behind her shoulder remaining motionless.

Only the red glow deep within her augmetic eye swept across the route data.

"Returning to Rostov Prime, using conventional travel and Warp jumps, will take an estimated fifteen