Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first (introductory) chapter of Serneldra Rising. The Emperor recommends that you review after reading.

The shuttle plummeted through the upper atmosphere, buffeting its occupants. Aboard, a youngish man named Xanthis waited nervously for the shuttle to land. Of course, then his whole situation would only become even more surreal.

"And I'll bet five hundred it'll be orks" exclaimed a tall, grizzled man, clenching his mechanical fist "I doubt the kid can hold on a standard year."

"Oh no, he'll be dealing, poorly, mind you, with chaos cults in half that time" said another, somewhat less scared, man.

Well Xanthis thought it's nice to know my executive staff has such faith in me. He thought, reviewing the files on this new system. No, it is MY new system. That is, if that inquisitor briefing me on the ship really was serious. I'm still having a hard time believing this is really happening.

Opening the files he had been issued, he looked at the system primaries. The most-settled planet, Serneldra IV, had been inhabited since the dark age of technology. However, when the forces of the Emperor had found it during the great crusade, the few remaining humans had regressed to barbarism. The planet was re-settled, and whoever was running the Crusade in this part of the galaxy had ordered the third and fifth worlds in the system HolyTerraformed. However, in the mass reshuffling following the Horus Heresy, almost all Mechanics personnel had been removed, which, combined with damage inflicted by heretics, caused all three worlds to slide back to pre-industrial technology levels.

Fortunately, all that had been sorted out fifteen hundred years ago, and Serneldra was now just another imperial system. Unfortunately, the Governor and his family had be involved in some form of heresy, and were no longer fit to rule. Do to being dead. So

He was, for nearly all intents and purposes, the sovereign liege to forty billion souls, their voice of the Emperor. Well, unless an inquisitor came along. He never expected them. Or a group of Space Marines. Or maybe a tech-priest of sufficient rank.

Xanthis, calm down. I sure this will... who am I kidding. What am I doing here? This is going to end awfully.

"Attention all passengers, we are five minutes from landing." the vox to the cockpit cracked and went silent. A jarring motion rocked the the shuttle, and the vox blared "Yeah, one of the engines just fell off. But we have three more, so we're still going to be landing safely. Probably."

Xanthis elbowed the man next to him. "Are these things able to fly with only three engines?"

He shrugged in response "depends."

At this point, substantially concerned with the situation in general, Xanthis began to repeat the Litany of Plummeting to Earth in a Shuttle Missing One Fourth of its Engines. Several jolts wracked the spaceframe of the craft. They were followed by an almighty thump, and Xanthis was thrown out of his seat.

"We have landed, and in one piece, too! Mostly. Anyway, welcome to Serneldra."

The shuttle was filled with the groaning of stretched metal, and a section of the hull gave way with a screech. Xanthis heard boots clanging on metal, just before several emergency personnel wearing full environmental suits entered the passenger compartment.

"Right this way, sir" one of the men instructed, leading Xanthis out of the passenger compartment and into the vestibule of the shuttle, which functioned as an airlock.

On his way out of the shuttle, Xanthis noticed something odd. The airlock exterior door, built to withstand the vacuum of space, had been crumpled on impact with the landing pad. But the strange part was the way it had been cut away. The cuts were smooth, with no indications off wielding, melting, or sawing. The plot thickens.

As he disembarked, he saw three people waiting at the bottom of the emergency ramp. The first was a tall, pale woman with jet-black hair. One her right was a man in the obscuring red robes of a techpriest, with the telltale glow of ocular implants shining out from under the cowl of his robe. The third man, on the left, was dressed in what Xanthis presumed to be a military dress uniform.

"Dear Emperor, I'm so sorry!" The woman said "that shuttle was triple checked prior to your arrival, sir. Anyway, I am Castella, and I will be your executive assistant, sir. We will be swearing you in as Governor of the system, sir. Right this way."

As the group began to walk towards the lift down from the landing pad, the man in military dress approached Xanthis. "I am the commander of the PDF for the three worlds of this system, milord. I hope to be of service, however, truth be told, we haven't seen much in the way of conflict out here in a few generations."

They walked a bit further in silence, and then boarded the elevator.

After a brief ride down, the doors opened, and the group filed out onto a large platform overlooking a crowded square, filled by a massive crowd, hushed with anticipation. A man in the overly ornate robes of the Ecclesiarchy, holding a large copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus stood on the platform, facing the door from which Xanthis had emergerd.

Castella elbowed Xanthis, harder than was probably necessary. "Don't screw this up." She said in a terse whisper "even you should be fine, as long as you're hammy enough. Seriously, just overact."

Xanthis walked forward, which triggered a roar of fanfare from the assembled crowd. The priest stepped toward him, and Xanthis placed a hand on the book.

"Do you" the priest intoned solemnly, his voice magnified by the vox systems scattered throughout the hall "Xanthis" he paused, as if expecting a surname "solemnly swear, by the Emperor, to assume guardianship of this planet, and make a reasonable appearance of acting in its best interests?"

Xanthis paused for a moment. "I SO SWEAR!"

"All hail the new governors, etc cetera, now go home."

Slightly stunned by the abrupt end of the inauguration, Xanthis was escorted to the executive aircraft, flown to his skyscraper, and put in his desk before he was entirely aware of what was going on.

Well Xanthis mused, poking a desk toy it seems like this is really happening. He thumbed the call button on his desk, and selected something called 'cocoa'. He had heard of a plant called by the same name once, as a child, but had never actually seen any. Forty billion souls he thought, looking at the population figures again The main world of the system, Serneldra IV, had a population of about 25 billion or so, Living in series of cities, not hives, scattered across the planet, though the majority were on the two northern continents. The southern continent, unfortunately, was largely unexplored, though it had been mapped extensively from orbit.

A door opened, and Castella walked into the room, holding a mug. "Your cocoa, sir."

Xanthis looked up from his desk. "Castella?" He asked, tilting his head "what are you doing here?"

"Delivering your drink, sir."

"I thought you said you were my executive assistant."

"I am, but the Administratum has given you a pass on paperwork until tomorrow." She said, setting down the mug. "So I won't be needed to oversee the legions of lawyers, secretaries, clerks, and kickboxers needed to handle that."

"That... that explains nothing" Xanthis said, shaking his head. "And I have a few questions. First of all, what type of ground and fleet support are we expecting?"

"None" Castella said, in a oddly cheerful manner.

"Ok" Xanthis massaged his temples "what about production. How long would it take to start floating hulls on our own warships?"

Castella picked up a bizarre cermaic thing off Xanthis' desk, then dropped it. "You... you are kidding, right?"

"Do I have a techpriest on staff?" Xanthis said, sitting up.

"Yes"

"Call him"

Castella reached for a button on Xanthis' desk, but before she reached it, a surprisingly young-looking man in the robes of the Adeptus Mechanicus entered.

"Greeting, sir" he said, extending a mechandrite with a glove on the end "I didn't have the chance to introduce myself you earlier, sir. So, you were asking about warship production?"

"Yes"

"Well" the techpriest said, drawing out the e "short story: nowhere to do it."

What if we were to start building a shipyard?"

"We could do that, sir, but it would take... awhile."

"Start surveying possible locations to do that" Xanthis said, leaning back "also, are you familiar with an artifact called a 'swivel chair'?"

"The Emperor shall know his own."

-Thought for the day.