{no pictures}
Within dreams I sleep… There I see a golden god, an emperor, and a child… by a fishing boat… smiling… a future I desire… but a perpetual they have called me… Ha! I don't see myself as such… a weapon… a demon slayer… a grey knight…. An honor born from Titan…Ha! I am but a man whose destiny is to die at the very feet of the golden throne. For I am the last… the last perpetual… ha…may our emperors light guide you… On your path… mother of our great king!
→Excerpt by Anval Thawn←
"Only in your deepest self is the truth of what you can be. And, without a doubt, that truth is terrible to bear."
→Sensie Saying, Book of Astronomican ←
In the dark, surrounded by a cold breeze from the lake, within waters poisoned and green, at the very bottom lay a curse… one no filter could remove, or change, or cleanse… a disease that spread from the lower levels… people born in slum and worked as a slave, were the first to greet the sores!
Within hours, the elderly and the young… were but the first to die or.. Become something…else… enforcers stormed the lower regions with much impunity, but they and their canine dogs could not stop it… the bodies uncountable!
The bugs in human skin ran like rats, their gift from their god, could not save them from father's love… they could only hope for the day of the hive…
Plans ruined and years of waiting wasted… for within the noble houses... In the rich districts, and on their streets… men... women… and those of questionable age ran rampant... Lost in their lust for excess…
Only the military center has been spared from this chaos… but first, a train came into port… soldiers on the wall, guardsmen at the ready… guns humming… servitors fixing and preparing… And when their doors opened and the gate closed behind as their lantern light faded… Sisters… and a tech priest… came out to greet…
[Who's in charge here? My sister… she needs help!]
Yelled Mary, but unto deaf ears, as none of the guardsmen showed a lick of care… only silence as the grave was to her reply…
[help? You say… who doesn't… need help… and as for your help… what about ours!]
Taken back for a moment, Mary, confused, but replied to the "soldier":
[What are you talking about? I mean, if we can help, we'll…]
[shut up! We don't need any more of your help! You have done enough…]
[I don't understand…]
[You blew the gate! The water gate! And because of that…. You have left us open to their attacks…]
[theirs? I'm not following…]
[Aw! The bugs!]
[bugs?]
[grr…Just take a look at the monitor behind you…"sister," they're already coming…]
Seeing a horde of Tyranids rising from the water, but more out of fear than anything, at least that's what Mary thought as she examined them closer…
[And that's not even the worst part.. Sister… the worst part is that… because of you, we have lost "our" commanding commissar!] continued the soldier as Mary stared at the screen in front of her.
[??? what? How are we to blame for this commissar's death? We just got here!] Interrupted Molly getting right up in the soldier's face.
[ugh! We don't even fully understand it, but as your train came to port, the servitors at attendance in the main command post… began to act differently…]
[by omnissiah! How differently?] Interrupt 43-sea with interest.
[Oh… a tech priest.. Then maybe you could help explain why the servitors regain some kind of individuality and with it... Killed "our" commanding officer…]
[This is interesting... May I examine the remains and video logs?]
[help yourself… the other tech priest won't tell us anything… they're being unusually quiet about the whole ordeal…]
[I see.. Did any techpriest also undergo any changes…]
[I don't know… you'll just have to ask them yourself!]
[very well.. I shall do that, and Molly, don't worry, I haven't forgotten our arrangements, I will get to it as soon as I am able.]
[That's great, 43-sea, and I don't mean to rush you, but we are in an active warzone, so please…]
[I understand as I too will need to prioritize some new replacements for my loss… and I think this little detour is exactly what I need… Hopefully it doesn't take long…]
Watching 43-sea back disappear into the city, Molly reexamined the room and said:
[Look, what's done is done, and we can't change it, so since we're here, why not lead me to the armoury? So, I can at least die fighting for the city if nothing else…]
[tsk… You should have died outside the city…very well… Wienart led the lady to our arms will you…]
[with pleasure… enforcer]
[Enforcer? Wait… you're not a guardsman… you're from the inquisition!] replied Mary in shock as she began to worry about Layla.
[That's right… Inquisitor Gad Vetrail at your service… "sister" or should I say sister in training!]
[Oh? What with that look? Hmm… sister, you look like you've seen a ghost… are you perhaps hiding something?]
Quickly regaining her composure, Mary slyly replied:
[No, your grace… as a fellow believer of our emperor, I would never dream of doing so…]
[Hmm… is that so… you know… lying to an inquisitor is heresy…sister… so, I'll ask you again… is there anything I should know?]
[no! I stand by my previous statement…]
[Is that so… alright then….] replied the Vetrail as he slowly approached Mary with squinted eyes, and over her ear said:
[You know… I've met many liars in my line of work… and you, "sister," have got to be the worst one yet! Ah! Don't worry.. I won't do anything yet… at least not until I find it…]
[find what?]
Hearing Mary's question as he put one foot into the train, Vetrail did a slight head turn as he said with a wide grin:
[The lie…]
Within the damaged train, as sparks lit every nook, the monitors stained in the blood of heretics, Vetrail, walked and examined everything, noted everything, and as he walked up to the corpses of ad-humans, to the leftovers of former scions… he thought nothing of it! Their lives and death meant nothing… but a means to an end…
Seeing the seeds of corruption, the state of its aftermath… and the smell of the rot… reminded him of the horrors of chaos, but as he approached a sleeping child… the light that glowed softly off her body… a sign of a pysker… maybe.. Or something else… Vetrail couldn't tell, but he was sure of it… that this child had something to do with that lie…
But as he reached down to touch her…he paused… as spear drew the line between him and her! Looking up from the spear, Vetrail stared hard at the combat servitor…
[Oh! Now this is interesting indeed… a servitor with a golden spear of his majesty? Now, where did you get that? I wonder…]
With a head twitch as a response, the servitor's eyes glowed bright, with words that sounded like a song… confused and not understanding the words, Vetrail tried this servitor by reaching for his weapon, but the moment his hand slid down for his hoster gun, the servitor twisted the spear and stop just short of Vetrail mid section just as Vetrail himself stayed his hand just above his weapon!
[I see… So, that's how you want to play… listen, you lobotomized machine! We humans are your master!]
Not impressed by his threats, the servitor remained stoic, but as for Vetrail, his world changed to black! Suddenly and without warning! He found himself in waist-deep ink! A black and viscous substance that swallowed his nerves…
[What are you doing? Alien!]
[Oh! Now I'm shocked… and interested… I wonder what gave it away…]
[ha! What that you're an alien! Please, I am an Inquisitor! I've seen my fair share of alien shenanigans! Besides, machine spirits aren't like this, and my emperor or chaos would have just killed me immediately, or tried to turn me, yet you… didn't which means… ]
[which means…?]
[You're an alien, and you want something from me!]
[Well, you're half right, I am an "alien" as you say, but dear… I am much more! And I don't need anything from you!]
[ha! Much more! Please, just how many times do you think I have heard that line from crazy cultists, from so-called gods…. And also you're a bad liar…so, where you the lie? Or did that sister have so many more secrets to hide?]
[Well, I may not know anything about her secrets, but, as for her "lie," who doesn't have secrets? I'm sure someone as supposedly important as you has a few of your own… right?]
[Yes, but I'm allowed to keep them; others are not, or they are…]
[Heretics? Right… you people are all the same…]
[That's right, and seeing that you are in fact an alien and are helping these "sisters," I can take that as proof of their heresy!]
[heresy… how so, hasn't your imperium joined hands with aliens before? To save your Emperor no less?]
[Heresy!]
[say what?]
[How dare a mere alien like you question an Inquisitor!]
[sigh, this is why it's impossible to talk to your "type"... this is just a waste of time, maybe I should have just killed you from the start…]
[Hold on, you said my "types", what do you mean by that? Have you meant other inquisitors before?] replied Vatrail with a raised brow, trying to skim out information.
[Of course, I have lived for a very long time now, seen and spoken to many "humans" who wish to use my power and a few who have wished to destroy me… so, which one are you, though I think I already know the answer to that…]
[tsk… fine… You win… and as much as I would love to destroy you… Unfortunately I am not blind to the situation around me…]
[Ah! I see… so, you to wish to use my power to help save your dying world?]
[Ha, emperor no! I couldn't care less what happens to one tiny world. Besides, even without your help, the imperium can manage this little incursion.]
[really? Could have fooled me…]
[That is because you're an alien and know not the ways of the imperium! In any case, that is not why I seek your powers…]
[Then why…]
[It's simple, you're a C'tan… right]
[...]
[Oh! Please don't look so shocked on my account, Miss… Oh! I'm sorry, what was your name again?]
[...]
[still don't feel like sharing? That fine… I only need you to like a flashlight needs batteries…]
[YOU DARE TO USE ME LIKE A POWER CELL!] screamed Miss A, who was now beginning to lose patience. Causing the ink to swirl in a rage around the Inquisitor!
[Now, now… calm yourself. I mean it's the least you could do after your friend here blew open our gates, and worst of all, caused our commanding officer to die…]
[but he wasn't your commander… Inquisitor] replied Miss A, as the ink waves began to lessen.
[true, but the fact remains, or do you want me to write a report on your precious sisters? Hmm?]
[You still dare think you can barter with me! Little human!]
[I do and I shall, after all, if you kill me, there will be no one who could relieve your sisters of suspension or worse… be fully blamed for my death!]
[even if they were, you'll still be dead… and I could…]
[what… kill everyone who gets close, hmm, now I don't think aspiring sisters would really like that… now would they? And as for my death.. Meh, it's just how my duty ends… ]
[you're crazy…]
[So, I'm told, now do we have a deal?]
Thinking quickly, Miss A looked outside her control to stare at the golden servitor for a moment and smiled as she thought:
[I could just kill him with the servitor and pin it all on him…After all, these critters with their silver tongue, always plan to betray the deals they make…]
[Well???] replied Vetrail as he stood in awkward silence for a few minutes.
[Hmm… but what's stopping you from making that report once the situation changes?]
[Oh.. well, nothing of course, it just means our deal has reached its end…]
[Well, then I don't see the point in…]
[Your sisters will die if you don't take the deal…] interrupted Vetrail with a smug grin.
[Your mistake is thinking I care for them in the first place! Human!]
[Oh! You do not? Then why stop me from examining the girl? Why even bother invading my mind in the first place? Please, I already knew you wanted to make a deal from the start! Your intimidation game is weak!]
[ugh! I really want to kill you… human…]
[I get that a lot, now enough of your empty threats, alien, and accept the deal!]
[...No!.. I don't think I will…]
Hearing Miss A's refusal and feeling a sharp pain in his mind, Vetrail suddenly coughed out blood onto his hands… staring at it and realizing his death, he simply laughed, as he said:
[ha! others will come… you bitch… don't think your safe or your sisters…] screamed Vetrial as he tried to manifest any inkling of psyker power, though in his heart he knew it was pointless… as the C'tan were no strangers to the warp…
Hearing the dying man's words, and seeing him struggle like a newborn, Miss manifested her sexy figure and walked beside the man, and said through lush lips into his ear:
[ I welcome them…and hopefully their souls will taste as good as YOURS!]
In reality and time, the golden servitor tore his spear from Vetrail's gut, causing him to fall, but even though he bled, his eyes had already shown that his soul was already long gone before he felt the cold touch of the spear! For inside Miss A's world, the ink turned to mouths, to tentacles that constricted him! Breaking bones and causing screams as music to her ears!
In faraway places, locked in secrets, sat a man on a ship, by Saturn rings… as he read the death signs of Vetrail and many more Inquisitors that were sent to that planet…
[sigh, I guess I'll just have to go there and see it for myself then… maybe what that tech priest had sent me wasn't a lie after all…] thought Lord Inquisitor Torquenmada Coteaz