Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Lucius left the Augury chamber in disgust. If the sorcerer was to be believed, his patrol on Shroud was ambushed and destroyed by a loyalist force. Another patrol was getting ready to disembark, but where to send it? Lucius went to the shrine of Astrogation and viewed the massive holographic projection of the Tyrus system. Glowing symbols showed the locations of both friendly and enemy forces. It was already becoming crowded in the outer system. Should he deploy them back to Shroud in order to exact vengeance or send them somewhere else where they might have more reign to capture resources? The Lord Commander made it clear that he would was not to engage the enemy directly until his force had built up to a size befitting a Lord of Chaos; and Lucius desperately hungered for direct engagement.

It was bad enough that Pox, not he, was assigned to lead the vanguard into the system. Now reports were coming in that Pox had only just begun consolidating his hold on the Void World of Hex and the bloated fool was already under siege from two Imperial forces! The loss of materiel due to the invasion was already being felt in the fleet. They were forced to postpone deploying a third cadre. Apparently the Daemon Prince had spent his time conducting rituals for his own benefit rather than building fortifications and deploying skirmishers. If the Lord Commander did not hold Pox in such high favor he certainly would have been "relieved" by now.

As always, anger helped focus Lucius on the task and he decided on a location to send the patrol force. He had a servant deliver the orders to his unit and walked inside the floating image of the system. Approaching the sun so that it hovered before him like a bauble, Lucius stared at the projection of the strange alien device orbiting it. "I will reach this prize first and claim it for Chaos."

Lucius spun around with inhuman grace and walked toward the exit with flourish. He grinned evilly as he left, "And then...we will see who is in favor and who is not."