Humanity throughout the galaxy sailed the Warp beneath the Emperor's protection.
The light of the Astronomican shone forth and spread across the entire galaxy, ensuring they would not lose their way in the Warp.
The arch-traitors were no different.
Though they had devoted themselves to the Dark Gods, they still navigated under the Emperor's guidance.
"Hm?"
A Chaos Sorcerer, guiding the Chaos fleet as a substitute Navigator after the previous one had died from overwork, sensed that something was wrong.
He had certainly been following the False Emperor's light toward Vigilus, under Abaddon's orders.
And yet.
He could clearly sense the Astronomican.
But he could not find the way.
The Warp route was no longer visible.
Startled, the Chaos Sorcerer focused again, felt the Emperor's light, and searched once more for a route.
But.
He could not find one.
"This is bad. We must re-enter realspace at once!"
They had already strayed from their route long ago.
Though they had been offered up to the Dark Gods, they were still beings whose souls shone like candles illuminating the whole darkness.
The Astartes in particular were like lanterns.
Vast numbers of Warp creatures began attacking the Gellar fields.
"Unable to enter. Unable to leave the current route."
"Tzeentch..."
Having strayed from their route and sailed into the wrong place, the fleet could not return to realspace.
The Gellar fields could only be maintained by singing of hope and salvation, and Chaos possessed no such things.
Despair soon blanketed the entire ship.
Then thousands of Warp creatures capable of easily slaughtering Astartes swarmed a Styx-class cruiser.
They indulged themselves in the flesh and souls of more than three hundred Heretic Astartes and tens of thousands of slaves.
And this was happening to every Chaos vessel traveling through the Warp across the entire galaxy.
"Get us into realspace somehow!"
The corrupted Gloriana-class battleship Vengeful Spirit, carrying Abaddon, was also assaulted by Warp creatures.
Because countless daemons were aboard, the Vengeful Spirit suffered no major damage beyond some slaves being devoured and a dozen or so Heretic Astartes dying.
But the damage suffered by the ships under his command was catastrophic.
It had been all well and good to boldly set out with twenty percent of the fleet under his command, following the Dark Gods' order to find a certain human.
But thirty percent of the fleet he had brought was already destroyed by Warp creatures.
"The False Emperor's light is no longer guiding us. It has rejected us!"
A corrupted Navigator delivered the report in a voice close to a scream.
Not only the Navigators, but Chaos Sorcerers and even a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch stepped in, desperately searching for a point from which they could enter realspace.
They drifted like that for another seven hours.
Every escort-class vessel was annihilated.
They lost thirty percent of their cruisers, along with two battlecruisers.
Before they had even fought a battle, they had lost seventy percent of their fighting strength merely in transit.
On top of that, the deaths of experienced slave crewmen and Heretic Astartes were an immense loss.
Battle was no longer possible.
"Ten seconds until realspace entry! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!"
When the Navigator who had finally found a way into realspace shouted, even the Khorne Berzerkers stared at him with desperate eyes.
At last.
They entered realspace.
The distance the Chaos fleet had traveled was a mere thirty light-years from its point of departure, in an empty region of space.
To travel thirty light-years, they had suffered far too much damage.
More than a million Chaos vessels, including those of the Chaos fleet and corrupted Imperial merchants, vanished into the Warp.
And the forces of Chaos, outmatched in supplies and fleet warfare, swiftly dwindled.
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