Periculo Missionem

Captain Vorodivio stood on the command dais of the bridge of the Strike Cruiser Acheron, his fist clad in the gauntlet of his Terminator armor clenched the rail before him. He did not shrink from the task he had to preform, but he did not glory in it as he would normally before battle. This was not his ship to command, not his company of Battle Brothers, but both of these things now fell to him.

The bridge buzzed with activity, the chapter serfs and bridge crew milled between hard wired servitor functionaries. Brothers of the Mortifactors First Company stood as an honor guard to the command center's entrance. The few members of the First Company aboard the Acheron had volunteered to take on the tasks normally fulfilled by the Battle Brothers of the Third Company. The droning dirge of the Third Company filled the ship's vox-hailers.

Deep within the Strike Cruiser Acheron the Brothers of Third Company chanted aloud the funerary rites of a fallen hero. The slain captain Mediosk rested upon the plinth set in the middle of the chapel's sepulcher, his armor rent in a dozen places but polished, the Aquila on his breast bore the unique scars of battle obtained during his last fight against Eldar pirates. His Brothers had recovered his remains from beneath a heap of slain xenos, a testament to the Captain's ferocity in combat. The Third Company of the Mortifactors had won victory in the void against the depraved Eldar, but they had paid a heavy cost for it.

The Strike Cruiser Acheron cut through the Immaterium, its Gellar Field proof against the predators of the Warp. Klaxons wailed throughout the Strike Cruiser, translation into real space rumbled through the beams of the star ship, the engine serfs gripped hard onto anything they could as they muttered prayers of thanksgiving and protection to the Emperor of Man. Tech Marine Karados strode past the engine crew with detached disinterest, his gaze shifting between a dozen different systems that were his responsibility within the Enginarium.

Captain Vorodivio scowled into the void as the blast shields protecting the bridge during warp travel were withdrawn. The silhouette of a planet swam across the blinding orb of the system's star. "Braedus, what's the name of that world?" The Marine behind the servitor responsible for real space navigation turned before addressing the Captain. "That is Jornath, our target Captain."