《Ignis》Chapter 4: Leaving Port
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Eating alone has little appeal for you, but you have little hope of companionship in the Officer's mess. Being a Navigator is oft a lonely experience, but this should let you gauge the Officer's morale at least. You leave your quarters and lock your door.
Twenty minutes later you enter the mess and collect a tray of fresh food. The servers are courteous and professional enough, despite their obvious discomfort at having a Navigator in the room. But you don't notice any outright fear or disgust. Professional standards would mask that, but It also may indicate that other psykers use this mess on a semi-regular basis. You pick a table slightly away from the other diners, all mid-to-upper ranks, all off-duty, to give them a bit of distance. They would probably instinctively move away anyway, but this also makes it clear that anyone sitting closer to you wants to be there.
You eat slowly, knowing you have several hours yet before the translation, listening to the hum of conversation. Morale seems very good, and discipline tight. You wouldn't expect any less from Faunia, particularly not if the Ignis is indeed a covert transport for the Deathwatch. You finish your food and head back to your quarters to relieve yourself in private.
Upon approaching them, it is clear that someone tried to enter. Scratch-marks around the lock indicate a rather pathetic attempt at picking it. Still you examine the doorway closely, looking for any other signs of disturbances, tripwires, that sort of thing. Finding nothing, you unlock the door and enter your quarters. You shut and lock the door behind yourself and stand in the doorway. Examining the room shows no disturbances, and all of your things are in their proper places. Glancing at the clock, you quickly attend to your business and make for the bridge.
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Leaving your quarters (after locking them of course), you begin making your way towards the bride with three hours to spare before the translation. One of the Bishops servants tries to follow you unobtrusively, but his cassock is not meant for blending in among crewmen or shadows. Three feet from the bridge door, in full sight of the armsmen guarding it, you turn to confront your trail. "I see you preacher. Head back to your room and prepare your soul, we will be entering the Warp soon."
The priest blanches in fear and turns to flee.
Shaking your head you turn back to enter the bridge. "Navigator Dannan reporting to the bridge."
The armsmen stand aside and you enter the bridge for the first time, and it exceeds your expectations. The Kukri was a warship and boasted an impressive targeting array, and the Megatherium was uncompromisingly merchant design, with her bridge was built around maximizing every possible Throne out of a given cargo.
But the Ignis' bridge is a wonder. Built to an older pattern, and with Archmagos Explorator Echo's touch tweaking the performance to the maximum, it positively thrums with purposeful activity. Every line of sight is clear, every communications interlink is active and ready for use. The sensor display is displaying its results clearly, without the usual wash of false returns or interference. Even the servitors hard-wired into their stations are acting with clear purpose.
Faunia acknowledges your presence, and motions towards the Navigator's Vestibule at the rear of the bridge. You enter and take your place on the throne within. The fixtures and interfaces are all top-notch, even better than that perhaps. You pull open a set of Astrographic maps and start considering what course to take.
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-Scarlet Surge-
~Alone in the woods he stays,Alone with his thoughts he prays.Time has soothed his wounds and made him stronger,So that pain and suffering will hound him no longer. ~The world which Cain lives in is ruled by humans and their companions, beasts which lend their strength to counterparts. To have strength, one is in need of a companion. Cain is a cull, a rare being born without a companion, disdained and seen as a lower being. But the least of his problems is lacking a spiritual counterpart, when the very nation he lives in befalls tragedy.Tragedy turned him into a savage, a lost savage searching for lost hope.
8 205Heavy Metal: A Cyberpunk Novelette
A soldier meets his favorite rockstar, partakes in mind uploading, and faces the reality of the war he's fighting. Ian finally has a night off, just in time to see his favorite band and the rockstar he worships. But then the doors are blown in, and a special ops team storms the place with guns blazing. When the smoke clears, his hero is dead. When the captain tells him to keep quiet, Ian can't help but talk to his hero one last time. What the rockstar says turns his reality upside down, that he might be the one inflicting terror on his people. Now Ian has to figure out what his captain is hiding, before he's forced to destroy the mind of his hero. If you love cyberpunk that makes you think, then you'll enjoy Ian's war within himself, and his plight against the military system pushing him to murder.
8 119Earths Eulogy
In July 2057, all life on Earth was wiped out by thousands of meteor strikes. Two men survived because they happened to be in the seed vault on Svalbard Island. An alien from a civilization far more advanced than our own sends them back in time to AD 70 with all the supplies that could be found in the seed vault. Will they be able to change the timeline enough that humanity can survive the extinction event of 2057.Books 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 are now avalable on Kindle Unlimited, as the story is now at book 6 Book 1 has now been edited as of July 29, 2022. Book 2 Should be edited sometime in September. https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B08BWQ1CLG Please note this story does not whitewash history. The Empires of AD 70 did things that would be called ruthless by our times. Things that we would consider war crimes were considered honorable. Superstitions that would horrify us today were commonly practiced. Things like child marriage were not just practiced, but for much of the world was expected. If these things bother you, then you know how the main characters in this story will feel.
8 185Out of Touch (BL)
(This story contains love between two men, M/M, BL themes.) He thought it was just a dream... Jonathan wakes up in a strange, ancient world full of evil beasts, corpses, and hunters trained to slaughter them. He quickly realizes, though, that the water is truly cold and the pain of watching the killings is all too real. Thrust into this world by an “experiment”, he’s forced to stay and follow a cultivator familiar with the land, or else he’d be the next one killed. Through his travels, he finds his name wasn’t always Jonathan Cheng. A whole mysterious past awaits him. Bai Yazhu has low spiritual energy from birth, the same as the rest of his family. No longer part of a sect, he roams the land with his partner, performing small deeds for commoners for pay. One day, he meets a dan jiao—usually this kind of beast needs dealt with immediately. But he’s unable to slay it. This thing is not normal. It’s... a human. Someone he knew many years ago. My first wuxia/xianxia inspired story. Slowwwwwwww burn..... Yes, I had posted this before but took it down to rework and write more. It's still not done. Story title is WIP. COMMENTS AND CRITIQUES HIGHLY RECC'D - BE CIVIL. Help me write xianxia!!
8 181Info About Inquisitormaster
hope it gets famous some day btw its my first time making this thanks you can read now
8 68Dark Desires (BDSM)
"I can't love you." I whispered softly. For the first time in my life I was scared, because I did love him, but once he found out about everything...He would leave me. I didn't know if I could handle him leaving me."Just allow yourself to feel me." He whispered.Slowly entering me, he filled me to the brink. He wasn't my submissive, he was my Dominant, the only man I allowed to have full control over me, my body.There were many things that I could revel, but each hard thrust of his body he forced me to take, I relinquished my control to him fully.Because sometimes, it's as easy to take control as it is to give it up.*This focuses on the emotional as well as the physical aspects of BDSM. There will be mature content in most chapters as well as mentions and acts of rape, as well as many others situations that people may not feel comfortable with.
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