Eclipsed Prelude #2 - Second Contact

There was nothing left to give. Ashra Shan had fought more campaigns and wars than many who had set upon the great council, and he knew from experience that they had nothing left.

The push had been murderous, and even with the air support of the gliders, it was too much to suggest that they would be able to do more than gain a temporary purchase. Shan rose unsteadily as he stared across the expanse, shifting his head to the side as he realized that even the gravimetric pulse weaponry had done little to stop their advance.

These were the moments, Shan reminded himself, that command was a terrible and weighty thing. Watching the writhing black mass move forward, Shan faced the grim options that within hours, another planet in the Imperium would be lost.

What could he do? The heaviest weapons had done little but scar the landscape. The population couldn't be evacuated fast enough, and despite the diversion of several capital ships to assist in the action, there would be nothing that could be done to slow the onslaught.
Scientists in the core worlds had begun to discuss of the loss on planetary scales rather than population or continents. If the Imperium's finest could not hold the planet, the core worlds would be exposed, and from there....an entire quadrant.

When the Shai' J'ihn ships had arrived, Shan had actually blessed the Starmother and the Nine Lights. They Shai' J'ihn Spartax class warships had been attempting to assist the evacuation, before it was determined they could do nothing more than lay down supporting fire for the last of the shuttles.

Shan rechecked his own ammunition supply and again surveyed the outlining outposts. There were already so many...so many who had been....converted.
At first, they had debated the cause, a pathogen or some sort of communicable microbe. Although he wasn't a scientist, the idea of a psionic cause seemed to make as much sense as any, especially with the swiftness in which the conversion had occurred.

The ground shook and rumbled, and he scanned the horizon to see the Spartax warships strafing the groups with Quantbombs, buying a small caravan shuttle time to lift off. It wasn't a matter anymore of rescue...he could already see the larger Imperium ships moving in with the WorldBuster.

'Ashra Shan' the voice called to him. For a moment, he thought it was simply a trick from the reverberation of the Quantbombs, but when his name was called again, he stopped and turned. Standing before him was a man, older than any he had ever seen. The man seemed dressed oddly for a battlefield - a simple herdsman, light gray tunic with a careworn face and hood. The man stood taller than Shan, with a full beard and white-gray hair that curled slightly around his shoulders.

'This world is lost, Ahsra Shan...you know it is. They have been swept up in the Grand Infernal Calculations of God Mechanics.'

Shan attempted to answer, but found himself unable to do so. His own voice paled in the din of explosions and gravimetric distortion weaponry. The herdsman's voice remained clear and strained only by the fact that he was an old man.

'Ashra Shan' the herdsman began again, 'You have been chosen. We have need of you, and other like you'

Shan began to motion in protest, trying to communicate above the war sounds to express his refusal. As if in answer, the old herdsman put his hands out, palm flatted upwards.

'All will be made known Ashra Shan...but for now...we go...'

Before Ashra Shan could protest, they disappeared into nothingness. Moments later, the converted swept over the command post. Moments after that, the first of the Worldbusters fell, followed by bright light that flashed as brilliantly as the nearby sun.



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ECLIPSED
MARSCON 2014