Throughout
the Ultima Segmentum, a story can be heard about a strange ghost
ship that has been sighted all over the segmentum for over a 1,000
years. Apparently, a Fiery Lions captain named Wilhelmus Van Der
Docken, who was the Captain of a Fiery Lions cruiser, had attempted
to cross a notoriously unstable area of Warp space to make it in
time to a rendezvous. This stormy area had one small stable route
through it, known as the Corridor, but at the time, even that was
considered impassable. Headstrong as he was, he decided to try anyway,
ordering the ship into the swirl but all his attempts proved to
be futile, as the cruiser was thrown off course time and time again.
After
so many tries and mounting damage and casualties, the ship's astropath
approached Van Der Docken to ask him to please give up and choose
another course. This absolutely infuriated Van Der Docken, who wanted
to fulfil his mission, no matter what the cost. In a display of
uncontrolled, blind rage, uncharacteristically even for a Fiery
Lion, he personally threw the man into an airlock and spaced him,
roaring at the top of his lungs 'Emperor or False God, I will
pass this blasted corridor, even if I have to try till the end of
time!'. Appalled and fearful, the rest of the crew obeyed his
commands and once again threw the vessel against the Warp storm.
The ship consequently disappeared into the corridor, to never be
seen again.
However,
about a century later, reports started to come in of sightings of
a sickly white-green glowing ancient Imperial ship that roamed Warp
and real space alike. Ships' crews tell of a large, badly damaged
cruiser with an enormous lion perched on the ship's superstructure,
that approaches their ship and passes by very closely, no radio
contact can be made and navigators are reported to have recurring
horrible nightmares for weeks after the encounter. The ghost ship
was even given a name; the 'Flying Lion' and has a prominent place
in local tales and the story can nowadays be heard in spaceports
all over the Imperium.
There
has subsequently been an official Inquisitorial investigation into
the matter, but this has proven to be fruitless and the official
report is that this is some mix of folklore and mass hysteria. The
navigators en other crewmembers that have been eyewitness to the
phenomenon and were interviewed on this matter were pre-emptively
executed to quell any possible unease in the local space faring
community. The Fiery Lions too, deny any knowledge of this phenomenon
and steadfastly refuse any comment on the matter. Still, careful
observers would be able to discover that every sighting is followed
up shortly by a Fiery Lions vessel meticulously scanning the area
of the occurrence
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