“Ser, you have to see this…”
General Somenion hated those words. A cliché jumble of confusion with a hint of fear and panic. They were unfitting words for any Rethan, let alone a soldier under Somenion’s command. Never had those words been followed by something positive.
“What is it, soldier?” Somenion grunted, getting up from his awkwardly small chair. There were other downsides to this request. Being a Rethan on the larger, more muscular side of things, most furniture was not built for Somenion. He had only just gotten comfy in this new office. The first time he had been comfy in weeks, ever since his Legion had been moved to the very outskirts of Rethan territory, doing patrolling vessel work rather than normal territory defence.
Being on a vessel was never enjoyable anyway. Weeks upon weeks of nothing but empty space and recycled air. Maybe, for once, this soldier would have something good to say.
“There was a… a bip. One you should see.”
“A bip on what?”
“This radar.” The soldier pointed at a monitor. It was continuously scanning the local area for unusual energy pulses. It was normally used for detecting warps and portals before they fully formed but it had other uses too, like detecting Deitic-based energies.
Somenion tapped the panel. The monitor was currently blank. The soldier was looking through recent logs so he could replay the disturbance on a second screen. He didn’t need to though. Somenion saw the bip for himself. Or at least a second one.
“Soldier, do you know what this bip is?”
The soldier continued scanning through the logs. “Uh, not really, ser. It’s warp tech. But not warp tech belonging to any nearby races. Nor races that we know with warp tech.”
“Do you have the logs?”
The soldier nodded, then printed out the logs and handed them to Somenion.
“Thank you. Keep on scanning and noting. If it gets closer, tell me immediately.”
Another nod and the soldier went back to work. Somenion returned to his seat, then pulled out a regional map, plotting the coordinates of the bips. It didn’t take long to realise that the bips had all appeared just outside Rethan territory, within the neighbouring Skyan Voidspaces.
At first, Somenion assumed it was just normal Skyan traffic. After all, Skyavok used the same technology that Rethavok used, altered to be able to withstand the bubbly, non-uniform matter within the Voidspaces in which they resided. But on closer inspection, the bips were designed to simply look like Skyan warp traffic.
No, this was something else.
“Ser, it happened again.”
“Same place? Same effect?” Somenion asked as he looked up from his work.
“Yes, ser.”
“Any signs of other races passing through?”
“None.”
Somenion fell silent, thinking to himself. There weren’t many options as to what the bips could be.
“Soldier, has there been any… godly traffic passing through here? That you are aware of?”
The soldier shrugged, not knowing. “There were reports from the 896th last week. They had seen the Panelix passing through the Voidspaces. Is it not the same though. I already checked that, it is not the same energy.”
Somenion reached for his computer device and did a quick search. There had been traffic from multiple deities in this region lately. The Panelix had been passing through, but not in this region. The same applied to the Whenvern and the Allbirther. With another search, Somenion found a match. The warp energy was coming from… the Thantophor…
“Ser?”
“Keep an eye on these locations, and see if you can locate where the warp energy is going.”
“Why, ser?” the soldier asked.
“Because I believe that the Thantophor is suddenly active again…”