uthors Note: I came up with the idea for this fan-fic cross over when i saw a picture of an Imperial Battleship, facing down a Borg Cube. The Cube said the typical "we are the Borg, resistance is futile." Then, the battleship said "we are the Imperium of Man, we are opening fire." I thought it was so funny, that I took my time and wrote this thing! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it!

Capt. Louis sat on his throne, the center of his kingdom and the very heart of his ship. Orderlies ran around him scurrying like insects before the unyielding gaze of their tyrant God.
His ship, the battleship "Emperors Wrath", was alive with activity that Capt. Louis could feel through the wires that attached from the ships conjugators into his skull via wires that ran behind his throne. A steady stream of information, most of it a low hum of updated status reports from the thousands of ensigns and other low-level officers at the hundreds of stations across the ship, was easily ignored and pushed into the back of his mind.

He felt pride at the efficient way that every member of his ship's crew worked in unison, each as interchangeable and usable as a cog in a machine. He knew that the Emperor was pleased, and he could feel his ships contentment as if it were his own.

But he was growing restless, as was his crew. There had been some minor incidents of crew-members disobeying regulations; primarily personal matters boiling over during the long stay in the black. It was nothing to be too worried about, but to Capt. Louis it only showed that his crew, that his ship, and that he were antsy, even gitty for some kind of action. Capt. Louis much like the rest of his crew wanted to go fight the heretics and the mutants and the warp spawn that comprised the black crusade of Abbadon The thrice damned.. They all wanted to serve the emperor, and what better way to do that then to destroy those that opposed everything that the Imperium of Mankind stood for.

The problem was someone needed to protect the supply lines from the surrounding sub-sectors caring supplies to the black gate and Cadia from raiding bands of corsairs and Dark Eldar. The ancient battleship "Emperor's Wrath", had been given that duty and honor. It was tedious work but Capt. Louis and his crew had many opportunities to gain victory and to see action; at least at the beginning. After they had defeated the Rogue pirates and small detachment of Dark Eldar corsairs that had plagued the system they were currently assigned to there hadn't been anything for them to do, and it had been that way for weeks.

And so Capt. Lewis and his crew waited for new orders to come. Capt. Louis had already sent orders for the senior Astropath aboard his ship to send immediate word of any messages going in or out of the ship; and he knew that sending the orders again would only make him look weak, or desperate. But damned it all, he wanted something to do!

So he had his men run a few drills, primarily test exercises just to keep them frosty and to ensure that any kinks in the system, or any damage that the Pirates might have caused had been repaired. He sent out another such drill simulation, and orders complete it by earth time 1000, this one slightly more complicated than the last. Sending copies to the various station commanders aboard his battleship, and commanders and captains of the small fleet of support ships, primarily destroyers and corvettes he had been granted command over by fleet Adm. Hassan. In total the fleet numbered approximately 40 destroyer and other support class screeners, 13 heavy cruisers, 2 battle-cruisers named Strife and Heavens Angel, and his own beloved Emperors Wrath.

Emperors Wrath sported an impressive amount of firepower even for a capital class ship, with thirteen Plasma Cannons and two massive Laser-Cannons, per battery. The massive ship having two batteries both on its port, and starboard sides, along with large amounts of macro-cannon batteries, and the prow of the vessel, and one massive Lance weapon that followed the length of it. Originally Capt. Louis had wanted his ship refitted with a Nova cannon because one shot from such a massive weapon would have been able to cripple even a battleship size craft, engulfing any surrounding support craft in the process; but his request had been denied, and no reason given… It was not a slight against him per say, but he supposed it was due to the significantly powerful lance weapon that his ship already supported was of an ancient pattern that was rare, and almost unknown; the tech-priests must have had a conniption fit when they saw his request.

Capt. Louis knew the men would grumble at their newest orders; though the crews and the other captains aboard the support craft would welcome the distraction. Capt. Lewis and the other flotilla commanders knew that it would be good for some of their new crew members as well. Helping the replacements from the Naval Academy's around keresseract tertiary, to gain some hands-on experience with their equipment before they got into any real combat. They all knew that simulations and even border skirmishes with pirates and renegades might be useful, but it never beat working with real equipment in the void of space. Nothing like the constant threat of being spaced should you make a mistake to encourage quick learning, that was Capt. Lewis's opinion anyway.

"Sir, rift opening approximately three light minutes outside of the system." said one of the watch standers who advised him and help him sort through the immense amount of data that the ship created. A split second later the information and emergency warp activity symbol appeared both in his mind and on his display.

"Class and make of those ships commander? Are they Imperial, traitor, or xenos?" Asked the captain voice calm as if ordering his noon meal. The watch stander pressed a few buttons before answering. Then, voice quivering with fear and confusion said "class heavy cruiser equivalent, make unknown, potential origin, Xenos." A few moments passed by as Capt. Louise's other watch standers did their jobs appraising the potential threat level, projecting intercept courses, and possible boarding and other combat tactics. Each one of these reports was sent to him with a high priority alert attached so that he could find them amid the rest of the battleships data.
"It's damaged already?" Came Capt. Lewis's voice confusion evident. "It's been in some kind of fight probably limping away. Highly advanced technology level for a Xenos race in this subsector, the few offensive capabilities it has are extremely powerful. Though those seem damaged perhaps even in operable."

Small yellow flags suddenly appeared on Capt. Lewis's screen indicating that no major information had been missed on first examination by his watch standers as they re-checked and triple checked the information they had sent to him. He touched each symbol allowing the updated information to rewrite the existing files on his system. The only major addition was a projected estimated position of the Xenos ship based upon its level of technology and potential damage that it had taken, again estimated upon the watch standers visual examination.
Capt. Louis made a mental note to have the slow watch stander reevaluated, and possibly demoted for her slow report.

Pushing the small symbol on his throne arm which allowed him access to the ships announcement system, Capt. Louis addressed his ship. "Men and women of the Imperium, ahead of us roughly 30 minutes away, is a Xenos ship of unknown make or model. Possibly being pursued by other unknown forces, prepare for boarding action and combat contact. A more exact time frame will be sent out within the hour to station commanders. The emperor protects, that is all." Capt. Lewis sent a similar message to the captains and commanders of the rest of the flotilla. He received shortly thereafter text responses of affirmation from first his ships station commanders then the commanders and captains of the flotilla.

Capt. Louis felt the ship start to accelerate at combat speed, nearly .3 light-speed as he pressed a button and approved the intercept course that his combat and navigation watch standers had sent him. It was an effective if inelegant plan, one he would expect from junior officers fresh out of the academy, or senior officers who had learned the benefit of simplicity given the complicated projections and math required to fight fleet engagements at relative speeds.

Before the arrival of the Xenos ship, the bridge had been filled with noise and noncombat related business. Now however, that busily buzzing hive like sounds were replaced with a tension and quiet as thick as the battleships armor, the only sounds were the breathing of shipmen and clicking of keys as orders, assessments, and combat projections and preparations were created and sent by way of the ships machine spirits in the internal communication system.
While his officers worked diligently ordering his ship into combat readiness, Capt. Louis ran simulation after stimulation trying to find the best possible formation for the tiny flotilla to take when it met with a heavily armed Xenos ship. Projections as to what the enemy ships weapons exactly were, where little more than educated guess work. But that guesswork was what had saved the Emperor's wrath, on more than one occasion. It was Capt. Lewis's policy to always assume the worst when it came to unknowns of this type, and he plugged that into his simulations.

The problem with that however was that he was forced assume the enemies firepower was similar to his own battleships. Imperial battleships, particularly the ancient near Horace heresy age ships like his own were the most fearsome thing that Capt. Louis had ever seen and so he gave the enemy ship the same capabilities. Capt. Louis knew this, but there was little he could do about his lack of information.

In truth as Capt. Louis read the projected tonnage of the vessel it was less than three quarters of a heavy cruiser, a whole two class sizes smaller than his battleship. In addition it structure was odd, a disk like main body connected by an elongated chassis to two massive warp drives. The projected power output of those drives astound Capt. Louis, though he had seen other things in his time as captain this was still an extraordinarily rare sight. Regardless of the high level of technology, Capt. Luis believed that the structure of the ship was fragile, and not suited for battle as much as it would be for speed.

"Sir, we are intercepting a transmission from the enemy vessel on a wide bandwidth. I think they are trying to speak to anyone who will listen sir, it seems a distress signal of some kind though it's not in high or low Gothic."
"Is it in any recognizable language lieutenant?"
"The machine sprint is checking now."
"Has there been any kind of warp signature detected in the signal?"

"I have picked up on captain". Came a third voice from behind his throne. It was the ships navigator who had spoken, voice week but ringing with an unearthly tone that seemed to echo across the chamber filling the whole bridge.

Capt. Louis shivered at the voice, turning his head toward its source. The navigator was a thin man, unashamed of his abb-human origins or his connection to the warp. The man was in-pious not feeling the shame that he so rightfully deserved. The man carried himself as if he were royalty, which as a member of a high navigator house he was as close to it as an abb-human could be. Needing the mutant to traverse the dangers of the warp never sat right with Capt. Louis.

"Thank you navigator, please leave the rest of this to the professionals. Now," Capt. Lewis said to a young female watch stander, "Tell me what the machine spirits say."
The woman answered with a shaky voice obviously nervous about getting caught between the two most powerful men on the ship. "Sir the machine spirits assessment matches with the navigators. The message is clean."

"I Believe captain that they don't even have a navigator; very dangerous for such a large ship." Again the oddly echoing voice, again coming from behind the captain throne.
"And why navigator do you believe that" said the captain voice tight with annoyance.

"I would be able to sense his or her warp signature even from this far away. If it was from one of the minor houses it would have a sour tinge to it, if they was from one of the other high houses, it would feel hot, filled with their arrogance. Instead I simply feel nothing, like staring into the void. When I know I should see stars all I see is blackness."

That is odd, thought Capt. Luis, as he pressed a button on his arm rest that would allow him to cut off the navigator's communication with all but the bridge. It was a petty move, but Capt. Luis knew that if his crew grew use to hearing the navigator being right or even the navigator giving council to him, that they would start to see the navigator as his equal. It was rare, but it had happened before. "Before you communicate to my bridge again navigator, I insist that you send me any reports that might help us verify data gathered by our systems via text message. If you do not, I may have to replace you with one of your acolytes until the commissariat can teach you better methods of dealing with that insubordinate toung." Capt. Louis's voice was cool and professional, and heard only by the navigator. The captain would never dare undermine the navigator in front of the crew directly; it would undermine the crew's confidence in the navigator, and could very easily cause morale issues. But in privet, the direct threat had its desired effect, and the navigator went right back focusing on his personal station and duties, trying to pretend nothing had transpired between the two.

Capt. Louis knew full well that he would never act on the threat; but then again there were stories enough of commissars summarily executing any psyker who seemed to uppity, or arrogant about their own power and influence; simply to avoid any potential for them to become a direct moral threat. The stories and his threat rang with enough truth that it might stop the navigator from interfering with his watch-standers duties or morale again.

Canceling the privet conference with a press of a button, Capt. Louis checked on the preparations of the various aspects of the flotilla, then his own ship, for counter boarding actions, sustained broadsides, counter-cyber attacks by malicious machine spirits, and the priests who would see to the spiritual needs of his men as they would soon face battle, and perhaps the depravity of some as yet unknown Xenos.

Capt. Louis clicked the external long range communications suite, and sent out a transmition that would take roughly eight minutes to reach the smaller ship. "Attention Foreign ship, you have entered Imperial Space! Surrender and you will not be harmed. Lower your shields, power down your weapons, and prepare to be boarded and searched. If you do not comply, you will feel the full wrath and power of the Emperors Wrath, and may he have mercy on your souls."

They were ready, or at least close to it. When they were, which would be well before they reached combat range, these Xenos would be facing the full fury and wrath of the Emperor, embodied in his faithful servants.