Joline and I slowly get our breathing under control, once we're done huffing and puffing I examine the room that we're in. It's a large room full of bookshelves, probably some kind of former administratum area. I point my las pistol at the other end of the room, set it at max power and pull the trigger.
The newly created hole in the wall reveals our target, the bridge connecting this sector to the rest of the hive-world. Civilians are desperately crossing the bridge, although most of them fall off the bridge to their deaths instead of reaching safety. We walk to the hole and begin discussing some form of plan.
Joline points at the bridge. "Can't we just blow it?"
I shake my head. "It's made out of reinforced ferrocrete, we don't have anything strong enough to destroy it. We'd need an artillery strike or something in that area of power to destroy it."
Joline points her las pistol at a building nearby the bridge. "Then what if we blow that building and make it fall on the bridge? It might not destroy it, but it should at least make it uncrossable."
That's not a bad idea. I nod. "That's probably going to work, try it."
Joline shoots at the building, the shot explodes but the building still stands. The imperial guard captain provides some advice. "Shoot at the pillars on the hundredth and fiftieth floor, those will make the building tilt and collapse on the bridge."
Joline looks at the enormous skyscraper. "Which floor is that supposed to be?"
The imperial guard captain points at a floor. "That one, see the pillars."
Joline nods and fires her pistol at said pillars. "Yep."
The shot blasts the support pillars into smithereens, the building slowly begins to lean towards the bridge. The crossing civilians, seeing that they're about to get crushed, start to hurry even more in crossing. The only thing that they manage to do however is send even more of themselves falling in the resulting chaos.
The building continues to slowly tilt, until the remaining support pillars snap and it plummets right onto the bridge, crushing a large number of civilians and blocking the bridge with the resulting rubble.
Somehow this hasn't deterred the horde of men and women from escape, they're desperately trying to climb over the tower of rubble, most of them fall simply from how packed they are and how chaotic everything is.
That should do it. I hand my las pistol to the head of the household guard. "If you see any rebels don't hesitate to shoot. Try to avoid the mound of rubble, we don't want to accidentally clear the bridge."
I then turn towards the vox operator of the imperial guard squad. "Inform the lord commander that we've secured the bridge. We can't hold the thing on our own once the rebels organize themselves, so ask for reinforcements."
The man nods. "Yes sir!" He takes the vox from his command link. "Squad 45641-11 has secured the bridge. I repeat, squad 45641-11 has secured the bridge! Over"
The voice of the lord commander is heard from the comm-link strapped to his back. "What is your situation, are the lord and lady navigator secure? Over"
I gesture for the man to hand me the vox, Joline takes it from his hand before he can do so. "Yeah, we're fine. We've shot a building and crashed it on the bridge. Send some guys to hold it, we don't have enough guns to shoot everyone who'll come."
Pavlo's voice is heard from the comm-link. "There are ninety three imperial guard squads converging on your location. Just stay safe until they secure the bridge, Over."
Joline hands the vox back to the imperial guard. "I'll go and take potshots at any rebels that I see, have fun getting bored."
—
It takes about an hour for the imperial guard to slowly trickle towards the bridge. The first squad that arrives is alone, fifteen men end up getting crushed to death by the rushing civilians. The next squad to arrive is smarter, waiting for more imperial guard to arrive before securing the scene.
After twenty seven more squads arrive, totaling to about four hundred something men, the guard then fires into the column of rushing civilians. Each shot that lands either instantly kills or heavily wounds. Las fire is pretty useless against anything above flak armor but is extremely damaging against exposed tissue.
This still doesn't stop the endless amount of civilians rushing in. I'm not sure whether it's panic that keeps them rushing to their deaths or just the momentum of everyone behind them.
By the time that the eightieth squad arrives the guard have managed to stop the tide of hive worlders. Joline continues searching for rebels, taking the occasional potshot when one is seen through a window or hole.
I stand up from the rubble I was sitting on and stretch my back. "Let's go explore a little. We need to soul search as many rebels as we can, hopefully we'll find out something of worth."
Joline takes another potshot, turning a rebel's head into ash. "I call dibs on any psykers!"
I sigh. "You already have Joline, let's just wait until the imperial guard properly sets up camp, you'll be able to take your pick at that time."
—
By the time that the guard is landing en masse we end up finding three more groups of rebels, soul searching them didn't reveal anything we didn't already know. I shoot the kneeling rebel in the back of his head. "This was a waste of time, most of the rebels have probably disguised themselves as civilians."
Joline is leaning her back on a nearby wall, she nods. "Yeah, do you think any of them are going to try to spy on the two of us?"
I snort as I shoot the next prisoner. "This area is completely enclosed and they don't have any way to transmit data. Even if they knew anything they wo-"
"Please spare me! I can serve as yo-"
One of our imperial guard bodyguards silences the rebel woman with a las shot. "-uldn't even be able to inform the enemy about anything."
The captain of the imperial guard executes a rebel who tried to escape. Joline shrugs. "Speaking of the enemy, why haven't they fired any artillery?"
The imperial guard captain gives the answer. "PDF are not armed with ground to ground artillery, especially in hive worlds. Ground to air defense systems are probably littered everywhere however."
The locations of those ground to air systems are heavily guarded, with it being almost a certainty that they have weapon systems capable of penetrating our armor. We're not taking a risk in attacking them, it's better to let the imperial guard throw themselves at them until they run out of ammo.
I holster my las pistol after executing the final rebel. Joline stretches her back and then lays down on the floor. "Actually, what's your name, captain? You didn't introduce yourself when we met."
The imperial guard captain salutes, forming the imperial aquila. "Imperial guard captain Varence Junta at your service!"
She's proved herself to be pretty capable thus far. Varence has shown that she is skilled in combat and strategy. "How would you feel about joining our house's armed forces? We would use someone like you."
She isn't for the household guard, not out of lack of qualifications but simply because she'll die if the glances at our third eye on accident. That doesn't mean that she's useless, she can help train our household guard and serve us that way.
Varence shakes her head. "I apologize, but my calling is to serve in the imperial guard."
I could force the issue, but that would just lead to resentment. Having the people on your side hate you is not a good thing for one's survival or mental health. I nod. "That's alright, we won't make an issue out of it."
Joline groans. "This is sooooo boring."
I unsheathe my rapier, pick up two pieces of nearby rebar and cut them to the same length as the rapiers. "We can spar with these until the imperial guard secures the area. You up for it?"
Sparring with power rapiers is both suicidal and stupid. Joline rises up. "I guess that works for killing time."
—
It takes the imperial guard five hours and two more waves of drop pods to eliminate the enemy ground to air defenses, allowing the main force to safely land and set up camp. We've relocated to the landing site.
Joline points at a ten year old kid. "That one's a psyker, can we keep it?"
I sigh. "You're responsible if they turn into some eldritch abomination or gets possessed by some eldritch abomination."
Joline goes to the cowering kid. "What's your name kid?"
The child stares at Joline. Her power armor is covered head to toe in dry blood. Joline ruffles the kids head, leaving flakes of dry blood on her hair and face. The kid faints.
Joline catches her victim before their head can impact the ground. She wisely nods. "Your name is Flakey now."
I look at 'Flakey'. They've got grown, shoulder length hair and, just like all of the other inhabitants of this hive world, are in a state of severe malnutrition. "Do you even know whether they're a boy or girl?"
Joline pulls down the kids pants, revealing that they're a she. "It's a girl."
I sigh. "Pull the kid's pants back up, let them have some decency. What do you even plan to do with the kid?"
Joline shrugs. "Having a psyker around can be helpful for some rituals."
We're going to have to soul search the kid before doing anything with her. "Do you want to go to the ship or wait around until the guard sets up camp?"
Joline rises and picks the kid up like a sack of potatoes, staining her with blood. "Let's go to the ship, we can come back after resting for a bit."
—
Resting for a bit ended up turning into spending half an hour taking off the power armor, then taking a thorough bath to clean up all of the dry blood we got on ourselves when getting the power armor off only to then turn a two hour nap into an eleven hour nap.
After getting ourselves armed and armoured we don't waste any time and head on to the imperial guard camp. Since there's no anti-air to threaten us this time we land with a system ship.
The camp is extremely busy, the locals have been conscripted to do the heavy labour and to later do the heavy dying. Tents are thrown about on each level of every building in the landing site, creating a weird mix of urban sprawl and camping area.
Joline points at someone. "DIBS!"
I take a look at her newest victim. A twenty-something year old man, blond hair and blue eyes. His face is immediately twisted in anger the moment that Joline points at him. He screams "That's it! I can't take this shit anymore!"
Ordinarily he would get instantly shot for making a ruckus, Joline involving herself with him stalled the trigger happy imperial guard from turning him into a scorch mark. The man shoves his hand in his pants and pulls out an autopistol. I unholster my las pistol and point it at him.
The guards are about to shoot, but hesitate when Joline holds up a hand to stop the man. All of this happened almost simultaneously. The man puts the pistol at his temple and shoots. His corpse smacks on the ground, his mouth still wide open as if he was still shouting.
Joline retracts her pointing finger. A pink arm comes out of the man's gaping maw. I fire my las pistol at max power, blowing both the corpse and the emerging daemon into smithereens.
I holster the las pistol and tap Joline's shoulder. "Please be a little more tactful next time."
Joline sighs and give me a resigned nod. "Fine, but I'm still calling dibs."
—
In the end it takes the imperial guard five days to finish setting up camp and unloading all of their war machines. We still haven't received a response from the inquisition. Joline and I spent most of our time training the course untravelled, hoping to at least get to the point where we don't instantly vomit after using it.
Joline retches, but manages to keep the contents of her stomach inside. I rub her back. "See, it wasn't so hard."
Joline's tired eyes convey her happiness. "It's your turn now."
By the end of the five days both of us can use the course untravelled without vomiting instantly. Me being somehow different from other navigators comes up once we discover that I can use this power on others as well.
Joline instantly vomits, not having expected to get forcefully teleported by me. I rub her back. "The score is two to one for me."
—
In the end it takes a full month for us to receive a response from the inquisition. We are to restore order on the planet, they will take care of the cult if it manages to survive.
Joline and I are currently at the ship's bridge, listening to the strategy meeting.
Pavlo points at the bridge leading to our sector. "The rebels have been attempting to attack us, thankfully we now have confirmation that they have no heavy ordinance, so we can deploy our war machines without fear."
He then crosses his arms. "Our only issue is that this world's main tithe is manpower. A purge would just be a more expensive exterminatus. We need to pacify the population."
The navy commander, a short red haired woman named Jilka, sighs. "And that will take time, will it not?"
Pavlo nods. "It will take a considerable amount of time. Even if we use the local population to establish order it would still take anywhere from two to three years to ensure that the situation is under control."
—
I stare at Joline. She stares at Flakey. Flakey stares at Joline. Joline points at the picture book on the desk. "This is a dog. D O G."
Flakey tilts her head. "Food?"
I snicker just to make her angry. Joline takes a deep breath, trying to control herself from falling for my bait. Flakey points at a picture of a cat. "Friend!"
Joline smiles. "Yes friend! Servants! Acquire us a feline!"
The maids immediately bow and leave to search for a cat. In a spaceship. I ruffle Flakey's hair. "Where do you expect them to find a cat? In the hive world below us or in the space ship?"
Joline blinks. I ruffle Joline's hair. "I win."
—
The preparations for pacifying the planet don't take too long after we get the confirmation from the inquisition. Three days is all that it takes for the imperial guard to train a whole lot of the locals and arm them with las guns.
There are two things that were clear from the scrying ritual. One, there's some form of Khorne cult on the planet, and two, there's some form of treasure hidden away. Whether it's rare minerals, archeotech, people or something else is not sure, what we could infer from it is that there's loot.
I take a step back, avoiding Joline's swipe. "When will you have enough blood for another scrying ritual? We need to get some more information on where to search."
Joline parries my strike. "Two weeks. It's a different ritual, for this one we're going to either need to find another psyker or have Flakey help us."
I parry her counterattack. "We can go take a stroll on the planet, just don't point at people and shout at them."
Joline sticks her tongue at me. "Fine, but you're not allowed to call dibs on anyone, understood?"
I try to avoid her lunge, but get my shoulder clipped. "Yeah sure."
—
The first psyker that we find is an eighty year old woman, who has somehow managed to slip under everyone's radar for her whole life. Joline blinks at her. "I'm not going to snitch, I just want to know you've managed to stay hidden all this time."
The old woman laughs. Her dentures fly out of her mouth and smack Joline in the face. The woman freezes and I begin laughing.
Joline takes a deep breath. "Just tell me and I'll leave you alone."
The woman bends down to pick up her dentures. "Nothing much sweetey. They only check for my kind at work. Since I just work as a prostitute for a gang they never caught me."
Work? Not worked?
I tap Joline's shoulder. "So do y-"
Joline shakes her head. "No, we're going to look for someone else. She's too old and might just die from the strain of the ritual. There's more than enough people for there to be another psyker in this sector, right?"
The only other psyker we find is a thirty year old bald man who immediately begins running away the second that we try to talk to him. A bolter round from our household guard is fired as a warning shot, which makes him freeze in place.
We take him to an empty room, blindfold him and soul search him. Turns out, he's a gang leader that hasn't managed to escape the sector in time. He's also not really suitable to keep around long term, as his stability is… questionable. Joline sighs. "I thought he was a member of the cult when he ran away like that."
I nod, having thought much the same as her. The man is still trembling like a leaf, terrified out of his own mind. I look at Joline. "Do you need him to be willing for the ritual? Or can you just do it without his cooperation?"
Joline punches the man in the back of his head, knocking him out. "I'll just teach Flakey what she needs to do for the ritual. This guy is one misstep away from spontaneously turning into a mutated blob, so he's too much of an unknown to use in that specific ritual. There's another that can work with him, and it doesn't even need half-navigator blood either."
—
Joline puts the blood red chalk back into her pocket. This ritual doesn't need two people to enact, so Flakey and I are just watching her from the sidelines. The ganger is strapped to a stone table in the middle of the navigator's sanctum; large buckets are placed under him, Joline's runes surround him.
Joline a snake from the waiting hands of a maid. She forces the snake to bite the man before giving it back to the maid. She now takes a deep breath and begins chanting.
"Haec vita viam ostendet"
"Thesauri sub nobis absconditi"
She takes a ritual knife from the waiting hands of a maid.
"Sanguis eius de circino erit"
"Sicut anguis nobis labatur"
"Ad thesaurum motivum ducta sit"
Joline slits the man's throat, the blood immediately begins falling into the buckets underneath him. Once all has been drained Joline slits her own wrist and lets a small amount of her own now green blood into each bucket. Her green blood does not mix with the rest of the blood in them. She begins chanting again after adding her blood to the last bucket.
"Sanguis meus erit acus"
"Me ad id quod quaero indicabit"
Joline extends her wrist to one of the maids, allowing her to begin patching up her cut. "That's done. Now we just need to make compasses out of this."
Flakey raises her hand. "Why is your blood green?"
Joline blinks, removes the bandage from her arm and shows Flakey the red blood flowing out of the still open wound. "That's just the blood in the buckets, my blood is still red, for now atleast."
—
AN: Didn't have time to double-read this chapter and catch any mistakes, please mention anything that you notice xd.