As she delivered the datastream into the sensor banks of the Barge of the Stormhawk, Ah-hotep also included a miniscule protocol hidden among the standard data. It was a tiny wrinkle in the datastream, just enough to propagate a singular blind spot in the tomb ship’s sensor arrays. A blind spot that corresponded with the alien ship’s energy signature and its likely route of approach.

‘Do my bidding and you will find yourself returned to favour, Ah-hotep,’ Simut told her, raising a hand to dismiss her from the command chamber.

‘I exist only to serve the Szarekh dynasty, my lord.’

She parted from the communications matrix, restoring consciousness to her physical body. She could feel the command protocols for her ship and accompanying vessels had altered, allowing her to break from orbit towards the fourth planet. She engaged the drives immediately and in the build-up of power used the moment to pulse an energy wave from her ship, a low-frequency radiative vibration that highlighted her heading and the positions of the rest of the fleet. It looked like a simple navigational check to the other ships, but Ah-hotep hoped it served another purpose.

An invitation, of sorts.

The prospect of direct action excited Nem­etus and had lifted the mood aboard the Ithraca’s Vengeance, though the swell of optimism was gradually quelled as they moved in-system, closer to the alien fleet circling Orestes III. Nem­etus had been manning the sensor banks when they had picked up the fortuitous energy burst from the departing xenos battleship. Although the exact make-up of the blockading fleet was not known, the general dispositions were revealed by an energy ripple in the exiting ships’ wakes. With this information the tech-priests had been able to plot a course that maximised the stellar coverage of the cruiser’s approach, pushing the engines as far as they dared while the orbiting fleet was eclipsed by Orestes III, using only existing momentum to tra­verse into the inner system when the xenos had possible contact lines.

The revival of Astropath Fedualis was also another sign of improving fortunes. Although far from full health, Fedualis was able to assist the Navigators in surveying the warp-dampening effect to some extent, using their senses and short ‘positional’ broadcasts to measure the reflection rate of the effect. It was growing stronger the closer they came to the enemy fleet but was peculiar in its dispersal, contrary to the impression from warpside. Nem­etus was not sure of the significance, but thankfully it was on this subject that Aeschelus summoned a brief council as the cruiser closed on the enemy ships in orbit.

‘Update on the enemy, Prax,’ the captain began once he, Nem­etus, Praxa­medes, Fedualis, Kosa and Oloris were gathered in the anterium.