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As the rest of the Speranza left the planet's crust one could see the large hangers, docking bays, and dry docks along the central spine of the ship all of which were protected by another large field of point defense turrets. Thousands of fighters and support craft and even several capital ships were capable of being stored and deployed into battle at a moments notice even if one did not take into the account the literal millions of onboard personnel ready to fight.

The ship slowly rose even as flaming volcanic rocks, torrents of lightning strikes, and waves of radiation lashed at the shields of the Speranza as if the mother nature and heavens themselves refused to allow the birth of the vessel.

Unfortunately for heaven and mother nature, the spirit of Humanity is not so easily broken as the ship ascended past the cloud line and quickly reached orbit as the pull of gravity waned as it rose ever higher.

As the ship achieved orbit I looked down at the planet with a frown on my face, the planet was once a beautiful greenish gem hanging in the void was now a darkly colored burning rock of black, red, and orange with large patches of dark clouds where the volcanic eruptions occurred. It was like someone took a torch to the planet, which fair enough was almost what we did. At least the planet was not structurally compromised, maybe one day it would be livable again, though it would not be for many many lifetimes.

I mentally began directing the ship even as I announced the successful take off to the crew which promptly began breaking into cheers, hymns, group discussions among the younger tech priests/Initiates, and the allowed alcohol rations.

I smiled as I observed their antics even as I had the ships that were already in orbit to come in to dock with the Speranza as we were going to be abandoning the system and rather not let them get left behind due to inferior gellar fields. Plus they really wanted to tour the ship.

"All ships are docked and secured, prepare the warp drive." I gave the order as my crew promptly complied. The power surged towards the warp drive of the Speranza and swiftly charged its ancient systems to readiness with a speed that would astonish most Imperials. As the drive hit the required energy level it spat out a wave of purple eldritch energies ahead of the ship, ripping a hole into the fabric of reality itself into a dimension of pure chaos.

Looking at the warp portal opened for the Speranza to travel through it was time to call upon the last piece of the first step of my plan.

"Emperor, wake up, lead me to Colchis." I whispered as the shard within me awoke and released a golden flame from my chest. The flames rising into a sphere that shown a beam of light ahead of the ship into the warp portal dyeing it gold.

Silently in the void of space the Speranza's engines burst forth with cataclysmic amounts of energies to slowly push the moving continent forward, entering the rift before it closed behind it in a snap without a trace, leaving the burning husk of a planet behind as the only testament of its existence in the system.

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AN: It truly is a struggle for me to come up with believable social when I lack any social skills of my own besides the ability to mediate and deescalate. Promise that this essentially "Second Prologue" is over, back to plot and action.

And wow this took longer to write out and came out longer than I thought it would. Sorry for it being a bit info dumpy and not really progressing, but hopefully it is still good enough for your viewing. Gonna try to have more dialogue next time as we progress on my Plan now. Now it is my turn to make things happen instead of just reacting. Now I have the power. Next update gonna be in a long while since I gotta update everything again, and my vacation will be over soon enough so I will have to get back to work. I'll try to get some side stories or interludes out instead if I can. Suggestions are welcome!

Moving about the planet of Colchis the planet's population went about their daily lives. The chants of the priests reverberating through the areas around the temples as they worshiped the Great Powers while the rest of the population all toiled in their duties as according to their scriptures. Farmers farmed, craftsmen crafted, and so on and so forth.

It was just another regular day when suddenly a shadow fell across the city. Looking up, the people of the temple city of Thalon saw the sun be blocked by a dark shadow. Terrified the people ran to the temples to beg their priest kings for an explanation of what is going on.

Was this a sign?

Have they displeased their gods?

Were the End Times here?

These questions and many more sprang up around the planet as the populace sought solace from their leaders in a unprecedented time and situation.

While they attempted to calm the panicking populace with false words of comforts and explanations their minds all collectively wondered at the event that was unfolding above them and sought to make further sacrifices to the gods for answers.

Such actions would never be attempted as suddenly the world died.

All across the world people looking up could see fast moving objects suddenly impact the ground with a bone shaking impact. The people quickly got back up with no real harm but immediately noticed a fast moving green gas flowing like water at unnatural speed.

The people did not even have a chance to run before the gas spread over them and the pain began.

In mere minutes the entire planet was tinged green as the green fog covered everything and began devouring everything. Everything began to be rotting and corroding before everyone's eyes if they had the attention left to spare for such details given that their bodies were being eaten alive as well.

Deep inside the grand temples not even the holy priests were spared as the green gas seeped in through the cracks of their perfect walls and doors.

Kor Phaeron screamed as he begged his gods for help from this unholy plague only to receive silence in return.

He fell dead clawing along the ground reaching for the doors that contained no such escape from the fate he and the rest of the planet was undergoing.

Within 5 minutes the planet was silent of all life. Everywhere was filled with death, not even the plants were spared. Soon the bodies began decomposing releasing large amounts of gases that formed dense clouds.

Far above the dark shadow unleashed a single ray of light and the planet burned. The very air instantly caught fire and spread instantly across the planet like a wave.

The firestorm burned away everything, every last trace of life and the gas was incinerated to dust and ashes.

The once grand cities that dotted the planet were all wiped off the face of the planet. All traces of civilization and life erased without mercy.

There were underground storages, tombs, and temples buried deep underground that survived. Some even had the few lucky survivors, but not even they were spared.

The dark sun blotting shadow moved and everywhere it went its shadow brought the final death knell for all that remained as it released rays of lights that buried deep into the earth and destroyed all that survived the end of the world.

Within an hour the formerly inhabited planet of Colchis was rendered a sterile lifeless ball of smoldering rock as the last of the flames quickly ran out of oxygen to consume.

Far above in the skies the dark shadow came closer and resolved itself to be a massive space ship. Red in color like rust and the size of a small moon.

All the bridge crew, except for the masked man, had faces of distaste or uneasy body language while nothing could be seen from the masked man's masked face or unnaturally still body language.

Suddenly he gave out orders for terraformers to be deployed and a base to be constructed.

Vast gargantuan hangar bays opened and hundreds of ships deployed like a swarm of locust towards the planet below. Swarms of constructor and mining ships flit about the void surrounding the planet cataloging fields of space debris of ancient destroyed shipyards and distant asteroid fields ready to be converted into raw materials for construction. Meanwhile, the terraformers deployed into large hovering saucers in atmosphere and began absorbing and releasing various substances to begin the planet's recovery. Lastly, groups of colony ships began landing and immediately disgorging hordes of tech priests and menials who immediately began converting the barren land into strong foundations for their future colonies.

They were all unsure of just why the planet was destroyed, but it was probably deserved as it was decided by their God's chosen one. So they went about their duties with no doubts in their hearts and a fervor unseen by most in the galaxy.

Back on the bridge if one could listen closely or had the correct augments you could hear the low voice of the masked man speak.

"Luckily Lorgar has yet to arrive or else I would have to reject your desire to save your son Emperor. Now, he can be saved when he arrives, but first your other fallen sons must be accounted for while we wait. Perhaps they can still be saved. Lead the way."

As quickly as the monolithic ship arrived it disappeared once more into non-reality, travelling to its next destination and causing cascading ripples through the Warp as those within once more gained sight on their hated Foe.