The Endurance dropped out of Warp travel dozens of light-years from Bakka.
When the Gellar Field enveloping its hull vanished, the entire warship was exposed once more to the silence of Realspace.
The low hum of its engines rose from deep within the hull, echoing through every corridor, every compartment, and every cooling pipe.
Chaos ships like the Shadow of the Emperor always dragged frenzied colors and trails of distorted energy behind them when they emerged from the Warp, but the Endurance was different.
It carried a heavy, damp stillness.
Mortarion stood on the Bridge, staring coldly into the darkness between the stars beyond the glass.
His figure resembled a rocky mountain wreathed in Phosphor Fog. A fine layer of moisture clung to his dark Power Armour, droplets sliding through the gaps in his pauldrons before gathering again along the next ridge.
He wore no helmet. His gaunt, lead-gray face was concealed behind a respirator, leaving only his eyes exposed.
Those eyes were gray-white and still. His gaze passed through the viewport toward the distant reaches where the faint coordinates of Bakka Fortress blinked on a projection panel.
The air on the Bridge was thick with a damp stench of decay, like the smell of rotting vegetation that never faded from the swamps of Barbarus.
Mortarion seemed indifferent to the sounds filtering out of his lungs.
He stood before the window without a word.
Vorx stood slightly behind him to one side, waiting quietly like a gray, human-shaped shadow.
The other personnel on the Bridge murmured reports from their stations: speed, energy readings, the precise distance to Bakka.
Those voices flowed past Mortarion like water, stirring no ripples in him.
But Naberius and Storas both sensed something was wrong.
Standing at the edge of the Bridge, Naberius lifted his head