THE WAY STATION

THEN

At the dawn of the age of Imperium, the Emperor of Mankind stretched forth his arms, and his armies sailed from Terra in every direction, a Great Crusade to liberate the lost and disparate worlds humanity had made their homes in the stars.

Ahead of the mighty armies, the Imperial Navy sent scout ships to navigate the warp and search out the paths through the burgeoning empire. One such sortie on its way to the Eastern Fringe found a vast stretch of nothingness, remarkable even in the depths of space for its lack of activity, or objects, or, well, anything, really. The warp space corresponding to this area was equally peculiar: the usual winds and storms of chaotic warp energies dropped almost completely away. This made the area rather safe, but also extremely slow-going to cross, without the regular flow of energies that Astropaths use to guide their vessels. The area, nicknamed the Dark, was marked on their surveys, and paths were drwn around it, and the exploratory vessels moved on.

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NOW

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HIDDEN