You have chosen B. You turn you back on the sound of the mortally wounded's death throes, whoever they were they are soon to be residing alongside the Emperor shortly. May the Emperor watch over them in their last moments, for you cannot. As you continue to leave your mind drifts to identify the situation you're in and plan your next course of action. You sit down upon the porch gazing curiously at the sky, the horizon is still plagued by deathly flashes of light and strange smell has drifted over the fields but you barely take notice because something else has ordained your interest. Amongst the sicken sky there are tiny pinpricks of spectral light instantly manifesting and dissipating alongside Arkhona's moon, suddenly, as if awaiting your audience a much bigger sphere of light, radiating in a hue of sapphire and crimson emerges amongst the midnight sky to confirm your initial thoughts. A starship has died. There's a fleet in orbit. As if awoken out of a trance you decide on the next course of action, you hurriedly run towards the grain-hauler you saw earlier and inspect the vehicle, it's in quite sub-par condition but it'll run as long as its got fuel in the tank, from what you can determine the rust on the chassis is merely cosmetic. You unhitch the trailer from the hauler and check the fuel gauge, there's not a lot of fuel, but it should at least get you somewhere. You open the cabin door and get inside, placing your Autogun on the seat beside you, now you just have to start the bloody thing. Upon closer analysis of the dashboard you realise that it's kind of barren, there exists a single lever with the marked notches: 1,2 and R, and a steering wheel. You swear an oath to the Emperor under your breath for gifting you a vehicle so simple an Ogryn could drive. You press a button marked ignition and a smile spreads across your lips as the engine begins to roar into life... Before stuttering out and dying. You blaspheme, before resting your head on the steering wheel in frustration before being jolted alert by the sound of some blood-curdling, almost heart stopping inhuman shriek off into the field. Whatever it is, you don't fancy your chances with it and resume frantically trying to start the engine. The engine groans then dies, another shriek in response, this time louder or arguably closer. You look out the passenger door's window and see the tops of dark figures slowly coming towards you, brushing past the crops in the field. You resume trying to ignite the engine all the while the figures come nearer but nothing. The engine merely groans like a wounded beast before dying once more. This time you grit your teeth to the point of a pain and mutter a prayer to the Emperor, the engine begins to churn and wheeze before once again starting to stutter, in frustration and fear you kick the dashboard as if to personally cause pain to the machine as the engine sputtered into life, billowing a vast amount of black smoke out of the exhausts. Sparing no time you slam the lever into first gear and set of rumbling down the path leading to the ranch. You lean out of your window risking a look to see if it's safe and laugh as if laughing in the face of death itself. ---- Hours pass as you drive painstakingly slow down a dirt road, the hauler has two speeds: slow and stationary. You start to wonder if it would've been quicker walking there but dismiss the mental notion as fatigue, the growing need to sleep. Not many people can go from working eight hours on a farm to 4 hours of reliving being a soldier again, many people of Arkhona would've just dismissed the omen in the sky and gone back to sleep, probably never to awaken. If they did, they'd almost certainly spend their last moments blaming the Planetary governor for not sending his household regiment to personally evacuate them from this rural hel-hole. The PDF are most probably struggling to evacuate the settlements and cities... That's even if they're awake and didn't miss the light show in the sky. ---- After continuing down the path you manage to link up on a main supply road, some would consider this a blessing, to signal that you're heading in the right direction towards civilisation but you merely regard it as a curse, the jolting and rocking on the uneven and stoney dirt-path was one of the only things helping you to stay awake and you decide that after you crest this hill you'll retire for the night... That's if this moving wreck can handle this hill. --- You finally reach the top of the hill and look down at the inferno below, what remains of a once thriving settlement is now wreathed in flame, a monumenus fire storm consuming buildings and market stalls, warehouses and locomotive lines, meanwhile black smoke drifts from palisade, a wall of smouldering tires fortifying the outskirts. You simply exclaim: "Frakk." Choose, A: Investigate the settlement B: Plough on straight through.
