Chapter One Hundred and One
His Glorious Aspirations. Imperial Space.
As I sat on my command throne within the bridge of my cruiser I could feel the level of excitement around me as the skilled crew prepared for this mighty vessel to enter the warp. I wasn't the only one who was eager to get underway.
It had taken four months to get everything organised before the fleet, if a cruiser, a frigate and some refugee ships could be called a fleet, was ready to set sail into the tides of the warp and return to the Fallout universe. I'd been so bored during this time even with the birth of my children, something I found that I cared far less about than I'd imagined, and so I was very glad to finally be getting underway.
Due to the unstable nature of time while in the warp we couldn't be sure that we'd be gone for four months from the perspective of those in the Fallout Universe, and it was possible that years would have passed for them when we got back or mere weeks, but somehow I doubted it as the warp drive on this ship didn't work like lesser models.
Another reason for the delay was waiting for enough Squat vessels to turn up to make it worthwhile transporting them. To ensure that this species of abhuman would be able to thrive in a new universe there needed to be tens of thousands of them, between the refugee fleet and those on board my cruiser there were more than enough, assuming that we didn't lose too many on the way. It would also help that we had a heck of a lot of supplies.
I did wonder if having Squats in the same star system as a version of Earth would cause problems for everyone in the far future, but that wasn't really something for me to worry about and the space dwarves could care of themselves. They'd survived everything short of a massive Nid Hive fleet so they could handle the Fallout Universe.
They might simply pack up and leave one day, however I'd advised their leader and spokesperson not to do that because of the hostile aliens in that galaxy, and Squats had agreed to create a new Stronghold while they would somewhat be protected by the big guns of my ship.
No the Squats didn't worry me and neither did the Imperials as I'd seen no signs that anyone had any doubts about my leadership, even the Inquisitor seemed to be minding his own business, no what worried me was the Eldar because they had a habit of screwing everything up and since they were interfering with my life they could screw it up as well.
When I tried to reach out with my growing warp powers I sensed nothing other than the fleet. The Squats were close enough to humans that any aliens should have stood out, but the Eldar could easily be hiding themselves from my senses as I was a novice compared to their Farseers and Warlocks. Plus I was loathed to use my warp based powers when there was an Inquisitor around.
It had been explained to me that I could only drag so much mass with me through the warp and the ratio of that mass to my cruiser had to remain within certain tolerances or the following ships could be lost in the warp. My ship should be fine since my will would guide it as cruisers are tough, but we could lose the other vessels if something went wrong.
My attempts to see into the future, which was never a precise thing since the future was always in motion, showed no disaster, but I still couldn't help worrying. Yet I worked to put those feelings aside as I prepared to guide this little fleet through the warp much like how the Emperor provided guidance for the navigators via his fancy space lighthouse only on a much smaller scale. This would take much in the way of focus from me so I had to put my concerns aside and pay all my attention to the important task ahead.