The World Eater
The line had been pushed back again, failure again, defeat again. As soon as Kyrel Ren was released from his bacta tank aboard the Devourer he watched as floods of reports were coming in. He swore there was an interval of ten minutes as Maw starships, some damaged, some barely hanging on barreled out of hyperspace in flames. No doubt some ships barely made it out of the Empress Teta system without parting gifts from the Alliance. There was noise all over the comms as ships kept jumping into the Foerost system. All of the Maw was forced to pull back towards Foerost in an attempt to regroup even resupply.
In the first few hours alone it was a mess. The comms of several Maw commanding officers were at each other’s throats. Slaves that were once sent to be transported deep into the Unknown Regions were instead forceful conscripts. Some were willing converts who had freely chose to take up the arms of the Maw, others were forcefully branded with the Maw’s insignia. By the order of the Wrath of the Maw a new auxiliary force would be made from the slaves. He even dangled the Maw’s own teachings by reciting that by killing the enemy they would be quick to become part of the Maw. For now he was trying to have the situation under control. Reports were becoming more confusing, he couldn’t tell who died and who lived. His own officers were scrambling to try and make sense. His holoprojector was flooded with hails from the retreating ships.
At the same time he had the head administrator of the Foerost shipyards in his ear. “Sir… I’m not sure how you expect for us to gain anything from this.” He said waving around a datapad that showed materials, even work in progress ships being scrapped to repair Maw vessels. Some even chose to get a little creative, and mix ship parts together to create ugly ships. “You were most welcoming when we deprived you of your predecessor…” He said recalling that the Maw would install those that would be most loyal, although there were some weasels that only followed out of fear. “But the materials, the trade routes being cut off… If you can’t provide compensation..” He was quickly cut off by Kyrel grabbing his throat, staring into the undead’s eyes Kyrel spoke. “You are in no position to make demands… We will take what we deem necessary for the crusade! Question the orders for what these shipyards have to offer, and you will find that I am not the most hospitable when my patience has ran out.” He said with venom before releasing the lowly human shipyard overseer. His attention focused to his commanding officer Commander Grodd. “M-My Wrath… we have done our best to guide the traffic of the Maw’s retreat. Now how do we fix this?” The Devourer’s captain asked nervously as he watched out to see the shambling remains of a fighting retreat out of Empress Teta.
Kyrel strode his way towards one of the dark meeting rooms inside the Devourer. Turning to the officer the War Master spoke. “There is no easy fix to this… Summon who you can to the Devourer, let’s see if we can try to collect ourselves before we tear each other apart. If anyone dares try anything stupid… Destroy them.” He said furrowing his brow showing his impatience at the situation. Grodd nodded. “Right away my Wrath.” Grodd would leave while Kyrel remained inside the meeting room, taking a seat at the head of the table. The comm chatter didn’t cease to stop, he swore he could hear the blood boiling inside. Tension had clung tightly to the air as the confusion had swept across the surrounding shipyard. The Wrath of the Maw would wait for his guests to arrive. Hoping to quickly find a way out of this predicament before the line would become shifted once more.