As one of the proudest races in existence, the Aeldari naturally looked down on humanity, the late-rising species.
In the eyes of those slender, stunningly beautiful xenos, humans were nothing more than apes who had only just evolved far enough to begin their grand adventure in the stars.
This young race was foolish and stubborn, and their ships were much the same: heavy and clumsy.
The Aeldari had always taken pride in their agile, lightweight, high-mobility vessels.
Comparing the two warships present now, if the Spear of Destiny was a middle-aged man who had put on weight, then the Shadowhunter-class was a nimble young girl.
In a normal battle, the former would no doubt be tormented to death by the latter's superior speed and maneuverability, before finally being blasted into space debris to a chorus of Aeldari insults meaning "trash."
But at this moment, the spinning, falling Spear of Destiny was like a fully swung slap, crashing straight toward the bratty little menace's face.
Boom!
The violent collision sent both ships flying sideways out of control.
At that moment, the difference in mass and durability was obvious at a glance.
The human ship, built with the philosophy of being sturdy enough to take a beating, had only suffered damage to its outer hull. Though parts of the upper deck had been completely destroyed in the collision, the reinforced bridge section remained intact.
By contrast, the Shadowhunter, which had seemed so certain of victory just moments ago, now had a massive rupture across its hull.
Although Eldar technology was astonishing enough that even damage like this did not completely strip it of combat capability, it still could not escape the humiliating fact that it had been heavily crippled the instant they made contact.
At that moment, while the Spear of Destiny still looked relatively presentable from the outside, chaos had already erupted within.
The chain of violent jolts had not only frightened most of the surviving crew and laborers out of their wits, but had also gotten a few especially unlucky people killed.
This sudden upheaval threw the ship's already unstable internal state into even deeper confusion.
After all, most of the crew still had no idea what was happening. All they knew was that someone had earlier told them the ship was about to be lost, and then one catastrophic event after another had followed.
Right now, they needed someone to steady them.
Otherwise, panic would consume those directionless souls and drive them into self-destruction.
And just then, with the mechanical isolation mode lifted, the shipwide broadcast system, which had earlier spread terror throughout the vessel, returned to normal.
A voice both familiar and strangely unfamiliar rang out through every section of the ship.
"To everyone who works for this vessel and struggles for this vessel, do not panic. The Spear of Destiny has now escaped the dangerous region of the Warp and returned to realspace."
"I, Solomon Harlock, swear here and now that as long as I am still alive, this ship will not sink."
"Now, return to your previous stations. Do your duty, and in doing so, take up the responsibility of those who gave their lives protecting this ship."
"We will continue to sail."
No further words were needed.
That brief announcement alone was enough to help those lost in confusion understand what they needed to do now.
They returned to their earlier positions, doing their best to fill the labor gaps created by the recent disaster.
Although quite a few crewmen who had directly witnessed the horrific Warp entity had lost their minds and descended into hysteria, their numbers were negligible aboard a ship as large as the Spear of Destiny.
The survivors once more became the countless cells of this steel beast.
Though the main engine had lost most of its power due to the transformer failure, the battered Spear of Destiny still managed to restart under the push of its remaining engine clusters.
Solomon fixed his gaze on the obviously alien ship not far away and immediately gave the order:
"Full reverse withdrawal. Shake them off!"
The Spear of Destiny was in terrible condition now, both in terms of damage and manpower shortage. Under these circumstances, any battle that could be avoided absolutely should be avoided.
And the enemy seemed to possess absurd firepower capable of piercing both reality and the Warp itself.
Trying to brawl with something like that was not just reckless.
It was suicidal.
However, just as Solomon ordered a full strategic retreat, the half-crippled Aeldari escort ship behind them had no intention of letting them go.
After barely covering its rupture with an energy shield, the Shadowhunter-class escort began accelerating.
Though they had slowed themselves considerably to keep the breach from widening, they were still faster than the Spear of Destiny, whose main engines were nearly disabled.
As the distance that had only just been opened up by that crash rapidly shrank again, and as one small lance strike after another began skimming past the Spear of Destiny, Solomon's heart sank to the bottom.
One disaster had barely passed before the next arrived. Was Mercury in retrograde over him or something? Why was he so unbelievably unlucky this voyage?
But now was clearly not the time to complain.
That alien warship seemed deeply dissatisfied with the way they had first met, and at this moment it was charging after them with obvious murderous intent.
Though Solomon's fine control allowed the Spear of Destiny to evade several lance strikes in succession, as the distance narrowed it was only a matter of time before the ship suffered a truly devastating hit.
Since fleeing could not solve the problem, there was only one option left.
"Open the vox. Wide-band broadcast."
Solomon drew in a deep breath, then personally stepped up to the communications console.
Broadcasting a distress signal across the void was a common method used by Imperial vessels under attack.
Unfortunately, the chance of that call actually bringing help was painfully low, so most of the time it just became the last words of a dying ship.
To be honest, Solomon really did not want to use this method.
After all, his free captain's license had a tiny little paperwork issue.
If an official Imperial ship happened to respond, his fate might not be much better than dying at the hands of xenos.
But now, he had no room to care about that.
When death was the alternative, who would not choose a chance to live?
"This is the Spear of Destiny. I am Free Captain Mordecai. We are under attack by xenos and urgently require assistance."
"Repeat, this is the Spear of Destiny…"
So the Spear of Destiny, while desperately dodging the Aeldari warship behind them, began shouting for help at the top of its lungs.
The Shadowhunter-class escort caught the distress signal from the monkeys ahead, and the Aeldari aboard could not help but sneer.
So what if reinforcements came?
At most, it would mean killing one more ship.
"These wretched monkeys must not be spared!"
With such an overwhelming advantage, and yet their own ship had still suffered such severe damage. It was a disgrace beyond measure.
…
In the Jericho Sector, a magnificent capital ship had just concluded a strike mission against a certain planet and was heading toward the nearest forge world to replenish vital strategic supplies.
She bore a beautiful name:
Lady of Storms.
At that moment, she intercepted a distress vox transmission from Imperial citizens.
Without the slightest hesitation, the giant ship immediately altered its course and began moving toward the source of the distress signal.
(End of Chapter)
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