12.433.M39

My frigate finally arrived and we were given leave to go on a little expedition. I used the excuse of wanting to stretch my legs as any ‘young man’ would want to do at this stage. See a few knight worlds with my own eyes. Perhaps a forge or two. Nothing too crazy or far away. Well it’s partly true.

I also needed a reason to swing by Arthas Moloch before the T’au started doing their thing. Hopefully it’s already been cleared of chaos forces. If not we’ll beat a hasty retreat.

It took us 5 months to finally reach Arthas Moloch. Not because of any issues really. The route we took had us make several stops. Meet and greets in different systems.

Hive world Agrellan, decent place really. Maybe things will change and the T’au won’t wipe it out in a couple millennia.

Knight world Voltoris was quite a bit more welcoming than I had expected other nobles to be. I made plans to return when able. Even brought a lady back with me. She’ll have to get mother’s approval first. Although I think Sasha mostly just wanted an adventure more than being with me.

I don’t think Naomi likes her. I’m pretty sure she’s just jealous and being territorial. She finally admitted that part of her job for my mother is to look out for me. I wouldn’t call what has developed between us love in a traditional sense.

She’s a sort of assistant, bodyguard, friend, fuck buddy, 2nd in command all rolled into one. It’s very unprofessional and complicated but it’s my ship so anyone who has an issue with it can take a short walk out the nearest airlock.

Arthas Moloch had indeed been ‘cleansed’. The system, the planet, everything was eerie. Our astropath and navigator both gave warnings about the place. So I did what any enterprising young rogue trade would do. I immediately set off to land on the surface with minimal support!! I’m kidding. My noble ass stayed on my ship where it’s relatively safe.

We meticulously scanned the surface locating multiple broken down structures. I will never admit this in Imperial company but the T’au were one of my favorite factions in lore. The blueberries may be new to the scene but at least they understand the philosophies of quality dakka and keeping things at a distance.

How does this apply to our current situation? Well we’re here before Commander Farsight. So we’re looking for temples more specifically any dais like structures. Any statues we find are also checked for any form of bladed weapons.

We do find a few locations which seem to fit the lore description. Thus I send heavily armed landing parties to the different locations with descriptions to try and find the Dawn Blade and similar weapons as well as Talismans of Arthas Moloch. No one is to search underground until all parties have finished their surface searches.

No one is in a hurry and the teams spend the next few weeks searching the surface of the primary areas as well as a few of the less promising ones.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In the name of caution the potential artifacts that have been recovered have already been returned to my ship. Afterwards the teams prepared to scout the tunnels of the primary locations.

The teams were all briefed to shoot first and ask questions later. Also that if they did make contact with anything that they were to evacuate immediately. No playing hero. Retreat with what you have while liberally dispensing the light of the Emperor.

Well shit. It wasn’t even a day before one of the teams had to beat feet while dispensing a judicious amount of dakka. I’m not going to say or even think too loudly what I believe they encountered. Out of the 12 members in the team only 3 managed to escape.

The moment their Arvus Lander was clear the site was thoroughly glassed from orbit with our laser batteries. I don’t mean destroyed. I mean erased. Everything in its general vicinity and at least a kilometer or two deep. The entire site was a glowing pool of lava.

Before the Arvus returned I called an emergency meeting with my Navigator and Astropath. Navigators are usually a bit grumpy or stuck up and mine is no different. However when I dead panned that I needed their assistance with ‘possible immaterial’ concerns. She pulled the stick out of her proverbial cloaca.

What? She might have one now or in the future. It could happen.

The returning Arvus was met with an armed party ready to purge any possible taint. No, I wasn’t there. That’s how a smart Rogue Trader survives. Delegation. The pilot was deemed free of taint. 2 of the 3 surviving members of the landing party were not. May Big E guard their souls.

I will however be eternally grateful for their sacrifice. It was later discovered that it was their team that managed to recover the Dawn Blade. I won’t diminish their sacrifice that an additional chronophage weapon was later identified in the recovered artifacts.

The remaining teams spent another few weeks searching the remaining sites. Luckily there weren’t any more ‘incursions’. All of the returning teams were inspected for ‘taint’ as well as being put in quarantine for a period of time.

I’m also paranoid and had them under observation even after the quarantine period was over. I might have too much humanity left. If many knew what I know they’d likely have killed them to make sure.

Identifying the Talismans wasn’t difficult at all. Have a servitor parade the artifacts one by one past the Astropath. The ones that became holes in the immaterium were winners.

We were able to recover 11 of these wonderful talismans. I had the smaller ones fashioned into necklaces disguised as the Imperial Eagle and one of the larger ones fashioned into the inside of my power armor.

The Navigator was not pleased with my new lack of presence in the immaterium. I told them they should be happy. Now they can worry less about me being tempted by things that are better off unnamed and being foreseen by sneaky knife ears. They conceded the point.

With that out of the way. As much as I would love to stick around or even try to start some sort of amicable relationship with the T’au. I think with my limited power and influence that it would be exceedingly stupid. What would I try to trade to them? Star charts with habitable planets in Ork space or in the way of the approaching Tyranids? Maybe later.

We instead make our way towards the Magi System (in the Damocles Gulf) to check up on the reports of Orks.

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