Under the full force of the engine, the cruiser slid back from the space-time tunnel to reality, breaking free from a void wound and returning to the material universe, the smoky tide of madness still clinging tightly to its hull.
As they passed through the Sea of Souls, they were surrounded by a storm of colors, sounds, and screams.
Selion had to admit that although this kind of trip was full of violence and trauma, it was at least familiar.
The Eldar warships were nearby, playing their own game.
They show no trace of being attached to eternal energy, nor are they about to emerge as an explosion of evil within the fabric of chaos.
For a moment, the crew of the Cursed Echo could only see stars.
Eldar ships shimmered, more shadows looming among other shadows, gliding towards the cursed echo.
Selion knew almost nothing about the mysticism of the Eldar's void travel, and he had no intention of caring about it.
Although he had heard of the term Webway, this weird interstellar wandering, the concept made no sense to him.
The few meetings the Legion had had with the Eldar in the past had rarely ended well, and he hated them even more than he did most of his brothers, a hatred of great intensity.
He saw the battleships approaching the eyeball display, as if space itself sucked them into the air, and he immediately acted instinctively.
As Sirion, the first thing he does is curse loudly and emotionally.
Then the second thing he did was order all personnel to return to their respective combat positions.
Finally, the third thing he did was to swear again, a long river of curses that even the Primarch might blink.
But this didn't quite work. The Eldar warships raised their unique solar sails and moved in a huge arc, never going straight.
Each of them turned around in the void in an impressive and dramatic arc. This was almost impossible for most human warships, and when Selion saw how elegant the Eldar warships were,
As he danced on the ground, he immediately felt a raw taste on his tongue - even his acidic salivary glands reacted instinctively to his disgust.
Because human technology, even with the contamination of the Chaos Gods, cannot imitate the dive of the aliens.
It is difficult to reconcile what his senses see with the laws of physics in the depths of space.
"where are you."
he shouted to a crew member.
"Yes, you, get ready for an emergency subspace flight."
"Understood, sir, we have heard Lord Talos's order before."
"very good."
Selion nodded and ignored that person.
"Activate the void shield and shoot down all missiles...if you wish."
In fact, whatever accident happened to him towards the Eldar, it was all just anger before daily battles.
He sat on the command throne - the throne of Talos, watching the eyeball display with vigilant eyes.
"Shall we accept the challenge, my lord?"
asked an officer in a weapons operator's uniform.
"This is a good idea. Measured in terms of tonnage, our ship is much larger than all of them put together, but they are likely to be the vanguard, followed by the big guys... So let's stop now and concentrate on getting ready.
The Navigator can enter the Warp when she decides to use her abilities."
Suddenly, on the eyeball monitor, a distant image was discerned behind the first two images.
This is a behemoth that is much larger than the surrounding ones, with huge horn wings, bones and glittering scales all over its body, and is bigger than the Cursed Echo.
Its glass-like sails shimmeringly reflected the light of distant stars, and its speed continued to increase.
"Another Eldar warship has entered the long-range scanning thread."
The Lord of the Oracles cried:
“It’s a battleship level!!!”
"Hey, what did I just say? The one before was just the first one."
Selion sighed:
"How long will it take for them to catch up to us?"
The hunchbacked Lord of the Oracles shook his head.
"It's hard to say, sir. Based on conventional thrust guesses, it will be 30 minutes later. But if the Eldar keep dancing in the void like this, I'm afraid the time may be shortened to 10 minutes, or maybe 20 minutes."
Sirion leaned back in his chair and put his boots on the armrest of the throne.
"Well then, my dear and faithful fellows, wouldn't it be nice to at least have a little while before we die to enjoy each other's company?"
While the bridge was busy, Talos had already passed through the bulkhead in a blur of blue ceramic particles and a roar of armor joints.
Navigator Octavia's attendants fled before him like mice from a pursuing cat.
Even her maids flinched.
"My lord?"
Talos didn't even bother to answer.
Octavia had come to, awakened by the emergency alarm. She jumped on her seat, and then Talos stopped with a thud, his boots hitting the deck hard enough to shake her throne.
She looked almost dizzy from exhaustion, and even though she had slept for several hours and taken nutritional supplements tailored to her constitution, the torture of the murder he had forced her to commit a few days ago was still etched on her face.
Taking on dark shadows, like this point in her long flight to the edge of the Empire.
Tired dark circles clung to her eyes, and her wet skin looked greasy in the dim light of the room.
She looked up at Talos, her head swaying against the sore neck muscles - indicating that she still had a migraine.
"Eldar?"
Octavia tilted her head and asked in confusion.
"Did I hear it wrong?"
"Let's jump."
Talos said bluntly:
"Do it now."
"What?"
"listen to me!"
Finally, he lost his patience and roared.
"The Eldar are coming! They can feel the psychic scream from the cursed echo, or worse, their wizards have predicted our location in advance, and there is a high probability that there is a fleet waiting ahead, more
It's coming, Octavia, jump now or we'll all die."
Shocked by Talos's roar, Octavia swallowed and reached for the first connecting cable of the throne.
Weakness made her hands tremble, but her voice was firm and clear.
"Where? Where should we go? The Eye of Terror?"
"Anywhere but here or there, Octavia! You are the one who makes the decision now! Find us a place to hide as soon as possible."
"Let me take a look at our current location... We are at the edge of the Storm Star Territory. We can't get to the Eye of Terror in a short time, so we have to continue moving forward."