After first contact with the Eldar fleet, Cursed Echo escaped over and over again under the control of its navigator.
Two days after its first emergency jump, Cursed Echo sailed back to the real void, only to find a group of Eldar cruisers waiting quietly near the asteroid belt.
Cursed Echo can only jump again, using a twisted arc to avoid the enemy's fire path.
It rolled and dived, breaking out of the material world and entering the relatively safe subspace.
Three days later, it broke away from the interstellar journey and drifted towards the center of the Tempest Star Field, only to find that five Eldar cruisers were already circling the route.
As the Cursed Echo approached, the alien spacecraft adjusted the angle of its sails and detached itself from orbit to intercept the Eighth Legion warship.
They had to run away again.
When it left the Warp for the third time, it was not slowed down by the Eldar blockade.
Echoes of the curse surged in the icy tide of real space, and the ship's sides sang in the darkness, screaming and spitting fragrance at the alien spacecraft.
A skirmish broke out in the process, as the Eldar warships, whose solar sails were shattered by pulses from the Eighth Legion's weapons, banked and turned with incredible grace.
The Cursed Echo won a battle it could not win, concentrating all its retaliatory firepower to trap the xenos warships in the asteroid field long enough to force them back into the warp.
But after that, the fourth, fifth, and sixth times, each successive appearance encountered more powerful obstacles, and at the same time they flew farther and farther away from their intended route.
"They herd us like herds!"
Sirion said as he returned to physical space for the eighth time, to which Talos just nodded.
"I know."
"We can't get to the Great Eye, brother, they won't let us go. You knew this in advance, didn't you?"
"I know."
"No wonder you are so insistent on changing course."
One week passed safely, and then they stumbled through the second week, but by the third week...
The cursed echo once again broke through the crazy clouds. It rode the purple lightning and agate-colored smoke all the way back to the material world. This time, it did not stop for a short time and then entered the cracks in the subspace, nor did it stop to collect their position and direction.
Scanned enemies.
This time, the cursed echo returned to reality and continued to accelerate, its engine blaring with blazing horns.
The battleship moved forward among the psychedelic colors of the nebula, deep into the huge gas cloud.
Talos ordered the engine to continue roaring and push forward at maximum speed.
"There are no Eldar."
Sirion looked at the scanner.
Talos then said:
"Go full speed ahead and bury the ship as deep into the nebula as possible."
When the attendants began to chatter, the chief priest suddenly shouted.
"Lord Talos, urgent——"
"Scanner jammed."
Talos interrupted calmly.
"That's why we're here, I know, Commander."
Today, the First Claws gathered around the central throne to spend the night with their leader. One by one, the surviving Night Lords made their way to the command deck. They looked up at the eyeball monitors and watched in silence.
The continued pursuit of the Eldar made everyone highly nervous.
Several hours passed.
Talos occasionally took his eyes off the stars and glanced at the tactical hologram.
For a long time, holographic projections only showed stars and a gas planet spinning in the void, and nothing else.
"How long?"
Talos asked.
"Four hours."
Markusen walked past the weapons console at the bow and looked down over the shoulders of the seven uniformed officers stationed there.
"Four hours and thirty-seven minutes."
"It's the longest one yet."
"so far.
The Prophet sat in the ornate command chair, leaning forward, the Blood Angels' golden sword resting on one arm of the throne, his own bolter on the other.
It is a massive dais made of heavy black bronze, with the throne itself extending from the central podium overlooking the rest of the command deck.
Talos had always known that the mentality of most superior men was one of standing above his fellow men in a blood pact.
But the prophet didn't think so.
If anything, he felt separated from his family, and it wasn't a comfortable feeling.
"I believe we are safe."
Selion said tentatively.
"Don't say that."
Talos answered, shaking his head.
"Don't even think about it."
Selion listened carefully to the sound of the podium, which had its own unique melody: the friction of levers, the whispers of servants, and the knocking of boots.
"You should take a break."
He then spoke to Talos.
"When was the last time you slept?"
"I do not remember."
"Are you kidding me?"
The Night Lord looked shocked.
Talos turned to Sirion, his pale face tensed and his black eyes dull from sleeplessness.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?"
"No, you look like you died and forgot to stop moving, it's been three weeks now, you're so stupid, Talos...go, rest, I'm here."
The prophet turned to the eyeball display again.
"Thanks, not now, unless we escape."
"What if I call the Skinner to teach you a lesson?"
"Valier has already told me about this."
Talos sighed regretfully.
"He had diagrams and everything, and he even wrote down the stresses in my head in great detail, citing numerous examples of the mobility restrictions that would result from depriving a soldier of sleep for two weeks."
"A very good lecture on physiology. I sometimes think he forgets that you were once a pharmacist."
Talos didn't answer. He kept staring at the stars on the eyeball monitor.
Three whole weeks.
The Seer thought, as he had not slept since the endless chase began, and just hours after he killed the Astropath who cursed the Echo, the Eldar disappeared from the void.
How many times have they been in and out of the Warp since then?
How many times had they returned to real space only to find another Eldar fleet waiting for them?
Three whole weeks.
"We can't keep running, Sirion. Octavia will die if we continue like this, we will be trapped, and we will die in the end."
Selion looked up at Reuven's bones that were crucified.
"You killed the wizard, I almost regret it, his power should be a boon now."
Talos turned his tired eyes to his brother, and something like amusement shone in the dark depths.
"Maybe, but then we'd have to endure his endless conversations."
"well said."
As soon as he finished saying this, an alarm sounded on the deck, and everyone suddenly united, and there was "joy" on the deck.
"Damn pointy-eared thing!"
"They found us."
Amidst Sirion's curses, Talos leaned back weakly on his chair, his voice now a tired whisper.