Chapter Six

Val looked out of the view port, where the cold vastness of space greeted her. “Five minutes until contact.” Bron, her second in command called out in a shaky voice.

Val had grown up within the Church of the Specter, and had quickly risen through the ranks, eventually becoming the head priestess of one of the many Church platforms that orbited Ramus. She had thought the trials she had gone through for the church would prepare her for anything.

Yet now she stood, unsure of her next move. Their FTL Radar had picked up on something coming in from warp. What it was no one could tell her. But in her heart, she knew that it spelled disaster. Most of the War Born fleet was out battling in Ramus’s outer sectors, trying to hold off a Karnage invasion. Few were left to defend Ramus itself.

“Two minutes until contact.” Bron said, stepping up to Val’s side. “What are your orders mam?” He asked.

How? Val thought to herself. How had anything found an unknown warp lane straight to Ramus itself? All known warp lanes were locked down. Yet somehow, something had found a way to penetrate straight to her home world.

“Mam?” asked Bron once again. His voice shook in fear.

The cold, empty space that Val stared unblinking into suddenly erupted. A colossal form ripped its way into existence from nothingness. “A Psiker Warstar.” breathed Bron, barely audible above fright in his voice.

Beams of purple energy erupted from the Warstar as it lanced its lethal radiation rays onto the nearest of the War Born warships. The ship erupted into flames that were quickly extinguished in the vacuum of space. Then to Val’s Horror several new forms abruptly appeared from warp. Three more Warstars snapped into existence…

It took hours for the War Born fleet to respond to this new threat. And in those hours Ramus burned. The Church of the Specter had tried to defend themselves, joined by the few War Born stationed at Ramus. But it wasn't enough. By the time the War Born fleet arrived, the Psikers had vanished into the warp, and left Ramus a burning husk.