Admiral Phoenix Berkana glanced across the datapad that an aid deposited on the desk before him and frowned.

The last fourteen days had seen scouting parties from all three Battlegroups scour the world of XC-50391, which the fleet still orbited, for any signs of life and to solve what could have happened to one of the scattered colonies the Empire had set up in the area over a decade ago.

High Admiral Plif rose from his seat at the head of the table as the lights dimmed and the holoprojector hummed to life.

"Gentlemen, the reports are starting to come in and it would appear our fears about the fate of the colony were justified. Early indications show the colony has been abandoned for some time however their databanks are yielding some interesting findings."

Text began to glow in the air above the holoprojector, it would appear that the colonists stumbled upon a rather useful piece of information about navigating the Chaos. There are a group of individuals, whom they refer to only fleetingly as the 'navigators' who appear to have an almost precognitive ability to plot jumps through the area.

Phoenix glanced around as a low murmur filled the room. Since the fleet had entered this region of space progress had been torturously slow due to supernovae, black holes, gravity wells, and stranger phenomena. Due to such hazards hyperspace jumps were short and required frequent course correction taking long periods of time just to go from one system to the next.

Plif raised a hand and the room fell silent.

"Verification of the rumors is a top priority and if true acquisition of these navigators will allow us to navigate this region of space far more expediently. I want each BGCOM to dispatch their squadrons to the nearby systems, to ascertain the truth to this rumor."

He raised a eyebrow as the admirals began to file out.

"Try not to start any war whilst they're at it please."

Fiction

• The second FICTION Bonus round runs from the 15th - 28th.
• Please send submissions to AD Phoenix Berkana at phoenixberkana@gmail.com
• Fiction will be limited to one submission per pilot per fortnight with bonus comps providing a prompt each fortnight.
• Word count minimum (1000) and maximum (4000) will be implemented.
• No AI derived fiction writing!

Round Two Instructions

• After Imperial Storm & ReMob the EH have left Tusorix and moved into the Chaos.
• Go read the background here : https://wiki.emperorshammer.org/EH_Plotline#Onward_into_the_Chaos
• Based on the prompt above (italics) submit a piece of fiction about your squadron (or any others) investigating the rumored existence of the Navigators.
• Write a fiction between 1000 and 4000 words following on from the opening prompt.
• Submit your submission to the Warfare Officer at phoenixberkana@gmail.com

If you'd like to opt out of having your submission published in Discord, on your profile on the site, a newsletter, or other avenue, you can do that but you'll need to tell us that when you submit it. The default will be that you're submitting it so you're okay with us publishing it. This'll let us set up things like a meme gallery that we didn't do in RtF 22 but had done in RtF 21. Note that we might choose not to publish it if we think it's not suitable for public display.

• Fiction bonus comps (each), Iron Stars with Ribbons: Gold, Silver x2, Bronze x3, Copper x4 (top ten)
• Individual best fiction piece between all four bonus comps: Upgraded to IS-PR
• Every 350 points earned from all sources other than bonus comp placement: ORA