Beacon

+Sub-sector Alt Wald, Ultima Segmentum+
+Feudal world Carth, Imperious System+
++Apostesty Age, 5th year++

It was five years into this ‘Imperial Civil War’ where cousin fought against cousin and child against parent. Here on this distant tropical feudal world in the far ends of Ultima Segmentum was a regiment of Guardsman raised from Craftworld Bien-Tan and death world Myr. There the human Marshal Layan Harb sat around with her platoon doing anything to pass the time while waiting for order. In the middle of the most unusual jungle she had ever seen, these so-called ‘rebels’ were doing nothing but fooling around.

The Eldar troops were doing something to keep their attention like either guarding or meditating in most cases. Some were entertaining the human troops by answering questions while a very few were surprisingly partaking in activities like knife throwing games or showing off acrobatics.

“You know, I believed participating in a rebellion would be much more exciting than this.” said the Eldar officer who stood almost two heads higher than Layan and offered her hand. With the help of the Eldar, Layan stood up to brush off some dirt from her uniform after sitting for Gods know how long next to the sandbags.

“Why thank you for the hand, Lady Elatyra” Then taking a formal bow.

“Human muscles degenerate after prolong amount of time resting so you should be moving around now Layan”

“Umm… Why don’t you accompany me on exploring the ruin with my squad?”

“Again?”

“Come on, you’re one of the few here I can hold a long conversation without losing interest”

“I’ll be going only because you are the second least annoying of the human troops”

“Wait, who beat me?”

“Sargent Sind, he is always quiet and don’t talk for long"

“I don’t know, but last time I checked the frustrated tech-priests could only muster to set up planetary level vox channels”

“Ever wonder how old these walls are?”

“If I must take a guess… About the time of the Eldar Pantheon. Although I may be overestimating, I’m no expert on these things”

Layan’s eyes widen to turn and stare at Elatyra before saying “You aren’t joking, are you!? Are they really that old?”

“I do not joke about matters such as this, especially to another officer.”

When the two officers walked to their destination the tech-priests were arguing about the treatment of the ancient device in the center of the room, and what to do next. One was ranting in binary and unintelligible clicking noises and another was flailing his arms about angrily. Layan took out her knife then threw it right between the middle of the arguing group have the knife plant itself on a vine on the other side of the room. The knife had caught the attention of the tech-priests, “Ah, my apologies to see us like this Marshal Harb!” said Adapt Auther.

“Cut your childish chatter and give me some solutions!”
The tech-priest simply shuffled around to form a line.
“Now!” said Layan as her face quickly turn to a scowl.

“If we can use a void ship’s” said the one that was ranting from the back. “Next!” Interrupt Layan before he could finish. “How about we bind some of the broken chimera’s engines to power this ancient device then attach a vox-transmitter to send a message to all across the sub-sector?” said Auther to hopefully please the angry Marshal. “Good, now get to work on his plan! Also, if anybody sabotages this I swear to Terra I will personally rip that person from limb to limb. Come along Lady Elatyra, we have more of this ruin to inspect.” Most of the tech-priest didn’t like this plan but was relieved angry Layan was gone.

They made ready to use the ancient device the next day after their praying was done and double-checking the equipment. Layan nod her head to give the signal to Auther then the device started to power up as several different engines were turned on. Something most unexpected happened, the entire ruin shook for almost a minute before everything went back to normal. Everything else had acted normally and the machine spirits were for the most part content with what was happening. The vox-transmitter started up again and was sending out a message to any rebels with ships to help transport them off planet across the sub-sector.

“I knew this would work and went off normally eh for the most part” said Layan.

“I’m sure you were confident in your own plan, Marshal Harb” replied Elatyra.

In the vast emptiness of space held some gigantic intelligences. It was waiting for one of the signs to return to the galaxy and follow it's instincts. Then there it was in the form of a single long flash to lure it in again. Just like how they were doing before and taught from before birth they must make it barren for the ones living surely must be up to what they had done before.