Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [304]

In just over twenty days, Rhodes completed all his goals and returned to his space fortress.

He publicly claimed to be in training sessions, practicing his Phantom Beast martial arts—no one questioned him.

It would take at least three months to reach Holy Terra—an arduous journey, and people didn't pry into Rhodes's affairs.

Back at the fortress, Rhodes met with Elena and then talked with Roboute Guilliman, Magnus, and others.

Over a month passed—getting closer to Terra. No more Chaos ambushes en route.

One day, Rhodes was in the lounge checking on Mefilas' progress. Huron's fleet, led by the Zett, had reached Rhodes's base after a month in the Warp.

"Master! As you ordered, I gave Huron a re-engineered planet and began the Astartes surgical upgrades, swapping in your gene-seeds. Afterward, he'll rename himself and lead his fleet into the mortal population," Mefilas reported.

"Good. Huron is a talented administrator—he'll cooperate with you," Rhodes replied.

"Don't worry, master, all will be as you command," said Mefilas.

"Also, do a psychic probe and memory rewrite on Huron's Astartes to ensure loyalty," Rhodes ordered.

Even basic Chaos Marines required strict screening.

"Understood, master! Not a single one will slip through. Once they have your special neural cores, nothing will go wrong," said Mefilas.

Rhodes was reassured.

Just then, Elena rushed in.

"Rhodes! The ship's Navigator suddenly screamed and lost her navigation signal," Elena said.

"Slow down. How did this happen?" Rhodes frowned.

Warp travel needed Navigators. Without them, it was dangerous.

Rhodes and the other Primarchs could pilot, but their methods were crude.

"Everything was normal, but she suddenly passed out, shouting that she couldn't see the Emperor's light, saying strange things. I had to restrain her to keep it secret," Elena explained.

She kept repeating, "The Astronomican is out! The Astronomican is out!"

Was something wrong on Terra? Or was it just their Navigator?

Just then, a psychic message arrived—it was Guilliman.

"Rhodes, how's your Navigator? Mine screamed about losing Terra's coordinates."

"Same here, Elena just told me. I thought it was just one Navigator, but now it's all of them."

More reports came—on Belisarius Cawl's Ark Mechanicus, their Navigators had the same problem!

"Come to my ship—use the teleport bracelet. I think Terra's in trouble," Rhodes said.

After the Great Rift, the Astronomican did go out for a while. Later, it was briefly restored; even then, it was dimmer, and the Golden Throne malfunctioned.

Before Guilliman reached Terra, the planet lost contact with the rest of the Empire, and many worlds thought they were the only survivors.

Only after Guilliman returned and met the Emperor did the Astronomican burn again.

But now, the Throne had been repaired by Rhodes, and Terra wasn't cut off. So what happened?

…

Ten minutes later, Guilliman, Magnus, and Belisarius Cawl all gathered in Rhodes's fortress.

"Confirmed: all Navigators report the Astronomican is out. They can't see it—navigation in the Warp is impossible," said Guilliman.

And just as they neared Terra! To lose navigation in the Warp now...

"Terra must be in trouble! Rhodes, can you use your Emperor avatars to contact the Emperor? See if something happened," Magnus urged.

"I'll try. Don't panic," Rhodes replied, summoning two Emperor avatars and linking his psychic power to try to contact the Emperor.

But no matter what, he could not connect.

"Any luck?" Guilliman asked.

"No. I can't reach the Emperor. Guilliman, can you sense Terra with your psychic power?" Rhodes asked.

Navigators were out, but they could try themselves.

"No, Rhodes. Try scanning outside with your power," Guilliman said.

He tried probing with his demigod power—but a terrifying Warp storm was raging, completely blocking all psychic contact. Something major was happening.

Outside, a psychic storm battered the ships' shields, threatening the Gellar Fields.

Even inside, the crew felt an awful trembling—they were on the edge of a storm.

"The Warp storm is intensifying—we should exit into realspace," said Belisarius Cawl.

"This isn't an ordinary Warp storm—the entire Warp, the Sea of Souls, is changing! We must leave now," Magnus added.

Magnus, with 10,000 years in the Warp, had never seen such a violent storm. If not for Rhodes's fortress shields, they'd have been shredded.

Rhodes nodded, and together they tore out of the Warp into unfamiliar realspace.

Once in realspace, everyone breathed easier. In just ten minutes, 70% of the Gellar Fields had failed!

Rhodes's ship had lost 80% of its shield energy.

"Don't worry! Even if we can't use the Warp, we can take the Webway," Rhodes said.

"Rhodes, contact the Eldar—I think something huge happened on Terra," Guilliman urged.

Rhodes immediately called the Harlequin and explained the situation.

The Harlequin tried to contact his troupe via Eldar psychic means.

"Lord Rhodes, sorry—I can't contact my troupe either," the Harlequin replied.

Harlequins had powerful psychic abilities, protected by Cegorach, and could communicate anywhere in the galaxy. But now, no matter what he tried, the Warp energies formed a barrier—his psychic signal couldn't get through.

Rhodes frowned. Even Harlequins couldn't send psychic signals! What was going on?

What happened on Holy Terra, or in the Warp itself?