As you can probably well imagine, The process of joining the PDF was anything but interesting. I was told at the end to report back the next day at the call to work, for training and equipment delivery. As soon as I signed on with the PDF, the familiar blinking appeared in my vision and I became impatient to finish up.
Well outside the Departmento Munitorum I found a quiet place to open the notification.
CAREER PATH CHOSEN. UNLOCKING RELEVANT SKILLS.
NOTE: SKILLS MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT A LATER POINT WHEN/IF A NEW CLASS OR SUBCLASS IS CHOSEN, IN WHICH EVENT, ALL SKILL POINTS WILL BE RETURNED FOR THE USER TO PLACE AS THEY SEE FIT.
CAREER PATH: SOLDIER
SKILLSET UNLOCKED: MARTIAL SKILLSET.
SKILLS GRANTED::
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY*, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
LASWEAPON PROFICIENCY, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
STUBBER WEAPONS**, LIGHT: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
STUBBER WEAPONS, HEAVY: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
MELEE WEAPONS, CHAIN***: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
MELEE WEAPONS, POWER****: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
MELEE WEAPONS, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 2.
MELEE WEAPONS, SHOVEL: TIER 1, LEVEL 0.
UNARMED COMBAT: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, REGULAR: TIER 1, LEVEL 1.
ARMOR PROFICIENCY, POWER: TIER 1, LEVEL 0
RARE ABILITIES: DUE TO YOUR AFFILIATION WITH THE ECCLESIARCHY AND YOUR ALIEN NATURE TO THIS PLANE OF EXISTENCE GRANTING YOU PRIOR AND SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD AROUND YOU, YOU HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP ON THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING A WARRIOR PRIEST. AS SUCH, YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE RARE ABILITY "PRAYER OF ABSOLUTION"
WHILE CHANTING THE PRAYER OF ABSOLUTION, ALLIES IN A 100 FT RADIUS AROUND YOU WILL BE CLEANSED OF FEAR AND DOUBT, WILLING THEMSELVES TO FIGHT TO THE BITTER END WITHOUT HESITATION IN THE NAME OF THE GLORIOUS EMPEROR.
FEATS UNLOCKED:
FEATS. (FEATS CAN NEVER BE LOST)
ENDURANCE: TIER 1, LEVEL 3 (NOTE: PLANETARY BONUS APPLIED)
DANGER INSTINCT: LIVING ON A WORLD WHERE DANGER IS RELATIVE AND DEATH WAITS AROUND THE CORNER OF EVERY NEW DAY HAVE GRANTED YOU THE ABILITY TO SENSE MALICIOUS INTENT TOWARDS YOU.
NATURAL BLUFFING: SINCE YOUR ARRIVAL, YOU HAVE SPENT A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME DURING CONVERSATION LYING AND TWISTING THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE NATURAL BLUFFING FEAT.
"Tiers AND levels to my skills? Just how high can I raise them? And Danger Instinct?? How did that work?" I wondered to myself as I read the message. "A rare skill? Double neat." I started wondering what kind of equipment I would be given tomorrow and started walking down the street to return to Nela when it dawned on me that I didn't know the way and he never told me where he lives. Unless he lived at the cathedral, in which case, It should not be too difficult to find again. I think...
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The sun was starting to set around 7 hours later and I was no closer to finding that mother fucking cathedral!! 15 temples, 22 churches, and a countless number of shrines I had been able to find, but not the bloody cathedral!! I sat on the sidewalk, leaning against the building behind me when I saw someone I recognized. The commissar from earlier. Sure, all commissars wore the same hat and jacket, but I recognized his facial features. Young and very sharp. A jaw that looked like it was chiseled from granite, a masculine appeal to his face that was broken by what seemed to be a permanent scowl and icy blue eyes. His skin was also as pale as the locals, so perhaps he came from the same stock.
Commissars are recruited from the Schola Progenium***** so there was a very good chance his parents had been high-ranking members of either the Navy or Asta Militarum before they got killed, leaving him an orphan to be raised by the Imperial church.
"COMMISSAR!" I called out and he turned his head toward me. With strict movements, he made his way over to me as I waved him over, his hard sole boots clicking against the flagstones on the ground
"The unusual one..." He said, his voice sounding more than a little displeased at being interrupted at whatever it was he was doing.
"Ave Imperator. What is it, citizen? I am quite busy!" he said in a sharp voice, his eyes staring into my soul.
"Ave Imperator. I ... I wanted to ask for directions, but I would hate to take up your time. You are just the only person in this city I Know besides Nela, and he is the one I am trying to find, or in lack thereof, the Cathedral he works in."
Shooting me an incredulous look the young commissar replied "Normally, I would not mind helping you, citizen. But I am in a great hurry. The cathedral is in that general direction," He waved a hand vaguely to my right. "Now if you will excuse me, citizen. Ave Imperator."
He started walking with a purpose and had soon rounded a corner leaving me alone once again. I sighed and started moving in the direction he had indicated.
___________
Either I was the most unperceptive person in the entire Imperium or that cathedral sprang into existence while I was looking away. I mean, seriously, how in the everlasting fuck do you manage to hide a building nearing 600 feet in height and the size of 10 city blocks. A rather small cathedral in the 40k universe admitted, but damnit, I am not that blind that I lose a cathedral covering several square kilometers worth of ground!
When I finally entered the cathedral, I realized I was not in the part where I was last time. "Yay, more walking," I thought bitterly. "I can already tell I am going to have to get used to that."
After another hour of walking and I heard a familiar chanting and soon found myself in the large prayer room I had been in at the beginning of the day. As I wandered around the edge of the room I heard a familiar voice and felt relief wash through my body.
"Björk! What took you so long? You are back just in time for prayer!" Nela sounded worried and enthusiastic. "Oh joy. First an entire day of walking and now a few hours of prayer. Grimdark indeed..." I thought to myself. "Nela, I am happy to have finally found you. I couldn't find the cathedral and I did not have a map!" I said with exasperation heavy in my voice.
Nela's eyebrow flew up high on his head as it dawned on him and he hurriedly said, "Right, memory loss. That is going to take some getting used to I'm afraid. I promise you, Björk, when you wake up tomorrow, I will have all the items you might need to function again, ready on the table next to the bed. Including some fresh clothes."
I looked down and realized my clothes were still torn from whatever this body I now inhabited had been through before I took control. "Is someone else trying to figure out how life works in my world?" The thought ran through my head at random and decided to stick. All through the hours of prayer, through the evening meal, and to the time my eyes closed as I lay on my simple bed, in my room which had the furniture of a monastery cell. I only had a bed, a table, and a chair.
The next day, I woke up to see a fresh set of clothes, a small coin pouch, a neatly folded map, and a small pendant at the end of a leather string, in the shape of the symbol of the Adeptus Ministorum. I put on the clothes. Non-descript, tough clothing. Typical for a world that produces PDF forces for the Imperium. Efficiency over form.
Looking over my old clothes, I realized they were a far cry from what I was currently wearing. Thinner, more delicate, finely woven cloth with intricate coloration patterns. "Maybe that is why he saved me. He thinks I am someone of importance..." I thought to myself. It would be like the Imperium I knew. Self-serving and corrupt. For all, its splendor, for all its glory, for all its might. The empire was an apple rotted from the core and out. The only fresh thing left was the skin.
A red light started blinking in the corner of my vision and I focused, my thoughts on it.
HELLO, WEAK ONE.
[HELLO] [GO AWAY]
It would seem I had to make a choice here. do I respond or tell whoever to buzz off?