Omiya III, far smaller than Earth, floated silently in the void.
In the distance, a gas giant, vast enough to obscure the entire star, made Omiya III look like a mere pebble by comparison.
And in the orbit of Omiya III, there was a frigate that seemed like a pebble compared to it.
The light of a distant star shone in through the scattered portholes.
Through windows that had been welded shut because there hadn't been time to repair them, the light cast intermittent reflections across the bridge.
The entire bridge was silent, save for the sounds of the increasingly proficient crew tapping at their instruments, and Ana, whose steps were much steadier now, as she began the final preparations.
Bruno and many of the Black Watch were still curiously gazing at the galaxy outside the portholes, watching the stars that had once shone brightly in the nights of Alert Star as they unveiled themselves in space.
Only Sith, facing the final report delivered by Ana, had a look of both joy and concern on his face.
"Although it's just a defective warship, its various power outputs are between 30 to 40 times that of a complete frigate."
"If it can be further repaired in the future, these figures will improve even more."
Ana delivered the report to Sith with an expression that showed she had long grown accustomed to such data. At this point, she had been completely packed up and sent to Sith by the Adeptus Mechanicus, so unknowingly, this former half-baked Adeptus Mechanicus initiate had begun to receive a hundredfold of indoctrination.
Aside from her hundredfold loyalty and support for Sith, even Ana herself had not noticed that her technical skills had recently improved perhaps a bit too quickly.
So much so that Ana could actually master all the systems and technology of the entire frigate by herself in such a short amount of time.
Faced with the natural, massive doubling of the warship's various attributes, what Sith cared about most was a blank entry in the warship's configuration list.
"How could I forget the Navigator..."
Gently rubbing his forehead in distress, Sith looked at it for a while before helplessly putting the report down, closing his eyes to ponder what to do.
The Imperium's interstellar travel relies mainly on Warp engines, but Warp engines can only take a ship into the Warp; to arrive precisely at a destination, one also needs a 'Warp Navigator,' a rigorously trained individual converted from a Psyker.
Only by relying on the constant mutual positioning between the Navigator and the Astronomican of Terra can one ensure the warship does not get lost in the tides of the Warp.
And now, Sith's ship had everything, except for a Navigator.
After all, aside from Sith and the Black Watch under his command, all the original crew of the frigate had not even lasted ten minutes after falling into the Warp.
Sith also wondered why the God-Emperor had granted him protection but had not left him a Navigator.
Therefore, Sith could not perform long-distance jumps at all right now; otherwise, without a Navigator to constantly correct the course, who knew if the ship might appear directly inside a star, or even a black hole, when it emerged?!
If he died then, that was secondary, but facing Khorne, who had generously bestowed blessings twice in a row, he couldn't let his soul be snatched by Khorne after entering the Warp and be forced to help hack at the Emperor...
The more Sith thought about it, the further his mind wandered, and he even casually muttered the names of these two in his heart. But no sooner had he spoken the names than he felt as if two pairs of eyes were looking at him from who knows where!
Sith snapped his eyes open, stopping his wild train of thought.
At the same time, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He was speechless that these two actually thought so highly of him—that they reacted immediately just because he had muttered their names.
It was as if... they were showing 'concern' for fear that he might run away.
"Set the distance to the minimum, and first try a short-range jump in the direction of the front line according to the star map."
Sith hurriedly focused his attention entirely on the warship and issued the command to Ana.
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