My mind was made up.
I would go and face the unusual greater daemon in the field. I was afraid, terrified in fact... but running away now would mean throwing away the lives of billions of people without trying something first. I could never live with myself with that, especially since Syrine might be the only one who could do something about it.
Earlier when it was but a million lives at stake, that pressure had already caused me a great deal of distress. I was sure my fragile psyche had no way of surviving a thousand more times worth of guilt.
Before I even started walking, my heroic venture was already hitting obstacles as Sister Veritta and Sister Welminah had ganged up to block my path while Kira looked on from the side.
‘Lady Syrine, where are you going?!’
‘To the front line.’
‘Why? It is not safe out there!’
‘Nowhere is safe now, there has been an unusual warp breach. A greater daemon of unknown nature now walks on this world. Inquisitor Thorn has already ordered the preparation for an Exterminatus if we can not stop it soon.’
Exterminatus, the subject of many memes, was the “ultimate flexing” action ordered by the highest authorities of the Imperium of Man to destroy a planet’s biosphere and all life upon it. It was scorched-earth tactics scaled up to a planetary level.
Both sisters turned deathly pale at my statement. I pushed past them, walking towards an open field while using my authority to establish a priority vox call to the inquisitor himself via Kryptorer’s skull probe.
After some tries, it connected and I put it in speaker format so both sisters could hear the important conversation.
‘Inquisitor.’
‘Syrine? Thank the Throne you are up. There has been an unfortunate development.’
‘I know about the warp breach and your preparation for the Exterminatus.’
‘... there is no hiding anything from you, is it?’ He sighed.
‘Keep that as a last resort, I will be heading to the field and see what I can do about it.’
‘Very well, do you have a way to stop it?’
For some reason, he sounded very calm ...and cold. It was then I remembered who I was speaking to. Is he already thinking of how to silence the masses if I am able to clean up this mess?
Realising what might be coming even after so much effort was put into saving lives made me furious inside. We had not come this far just to put up with this bullshit doctrine of treating the population like cheap dirt.
After taking a deep breath, I answered the question in my calmest voice. ‘Nothing concrete yet, but promise me you won’t do anything rash like silencing all the witnesses to this occurrence like the aftermath of the first Armageddon war.’
To my knowledge, the First War for Armageddon was a truly titanic clash between the forces of Chaos and the defenders of the Imperium of Man where a daemon primarch led a daemonic assault on the Hive World of Armageddon.
The war itself was horrible enough, but its aftermath was arguably far worse. There was an ugly internal conflict when the Inquisition's decision to sterilise the entire surviving population of Armageddon and the Imperial troops that took part in the war, to maintain their policy of secrecy concerning the existence of daemonic entities.
According to the lore, untold millions died for being bystanders and billions more ended up in the direct crosshairs of fellow Imperials in said conflict. It had stood up as one of the darkest episodes of Imperial cover-ups gone wrong. I did not know if that sort of merciless standard operating procedure was something Thaberus would subscribe to but it might not be far off.
‘......’
‘There has to be another solution to this than the usual methods the Inquisition employs. Going forward this might become more and more common and we can’t just start killing everyone every time one of these things comes through.’ I pushed with my valid reasons.
‘I agree with you on that statement.’ He relented.
‘While I understand we do not have the resources to screen thousands of troops for warp taint, I will look for a solution if we get through this. So promise me you will not enact mass killings to silence witnesses of this incident while I am alive.’
‘... fair enough, I promise.’
‘Will you swear to that in the name of my Father?’
‘Very well, I swear to the God-Emperor that I will not silence the witnesses to this conflict while you live.’
‘Thank you. I will be going now.’
Just as I cut the vox call my mind registered three Mechanicus flyers approaching fast.
‘My ride’s here.’ I turned to the sisters, they both looked as pale as ghosts after hearing the grim developments.
‘I … I am coming with you.’ Welminah blurted out.
‘Me too!’ Veritta followed.
‘Are both of you serious? I am heading to where a greater daemon is rampaging.’
‘Lady Syrine!’ Welminah protested with teary eyes, ‘please think about the tirade of condemnations Canoness Diadinah will be levelling at me should I leave you alone in this junction.’
‘Likewise, I will be accompanying you to the front line as my meagre skillset might be called upon to serve.’ Veritta insisted.
‘Your security is my primary objective, I will follow you regardless of your destination.’ Kira added.
It looked like there was no way I could shake them all here so I laid down my condition, ‘very well, you may follow but once we reach the front line you two need to stay away from direct action.’
A wing of Mechanicus flyers appeared and approached us, an Archaeopter Transvector fast transport escorted by two Stratoraptors, its gunship variant. With their unique shape, it looked as if we were being approached by three colossal dragonflies with wings resembling that of a bat. Once the flyers got close enough they engaged hover mode, causing a huge downward draft that made our clothes flutter furiously as the transport landed in front of us.
I stepped forward but Kira was way ahead of me, she opened the side door and ushered us inside. Once we got into the Transvector, I noted its interior was a far cry from that of the Flameraven, smelling like a car workshop with cold, austere looking seats aimed for maximum efficiency.
This aircraft was a workhorse model for the Mechanicus after all, the concept of travel comforts might not even exist in its design.
At the front of the flyer was the pilot who looked to be a heavily augmented human. As I moved closer to relay my instructions, to my shock I realised his lower body and mechanical legs seemed to be fused with the aircraft itself. Oh yeah, this was mentioned in the lore, but to see it in real life was unnerving. The pilot must be a Pteraxii.
The Pteraxii looked at me with his cold goggle eyes, he seemed to be confused and said in a flat voice, ‘Mechanicus personnel only.’
Kira appeared beside me, brandishing a shiny Opus Machina like a sheriff showing off a badge, ‘Overruled, I am Skitarii Alpha Kira Heptrix. This operation falls under Dominus Cykell’s directive, you will comply.’ Kryptorer’s skull probe flew over and canted some binary verification code.
‘Complying.’ The Pteraxii nodded and off we went.
We settled down inside on the cold, metallic seats as the Transvector steadily gained speed. I then made a priority vox call to the canoness through the skull probe that connected quickly.
‘Diadinah.’
‘Lady Syrine?! I am so glad to hear you are fine, receiving loud and clear.’
‘Please listen carefully. Despite the measures we had taken, a true enemy has appeared.’
‘Inquisitor Thorn had warned us of a serious warp incursion and he is currently chasing it down.’
‘It has taken the form of a huge winged humanoid, carrying a gigantic axe and is currently heading towards your direction as we speak. I am coming over to fetch the Nameless Sword and I need you to prepare a few things for me. A fast rhino, a capable driver...’
After dropping my instructions, I ended the vox call and switched on the composite pict-feed from various sources chasing the daemon. I saw it rampaging towards the heart of the battle, sometimes stopping to unleash its terrifying rage at the unfortunate retreating rebels that got in its way, flipping tanks and cutting people down as it saw fit.
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I watched the live stream intently, wanting to learn its pattern of attack and weakness. So far, one glaring weakness seemed to be that this thing was limited to only melee attacks. Granted, almost everything it touched instantly got destroyed, even Leman Russ battle tanks were little more than speed bumps as it rampaged forward.
The greater daemon seemed so awkwardly out of place in a battlefield brimming with guns and cannons it was almost laughable, but so far it did not even look bothered by the returning fire. It seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere of the war, striding purposely forward into a whole armoured formation, completely impervious to small arms fire and large calibre guns.
Welminah approached me timidly and asked, ‘My Lady, pardon me but you mentioned a greater daemon is on the loose? Surely an issue like that is better left to the army to deal with?’
Her question almost made me want to hug her and cry out loud, ‘How I wish it to be the case!’ Instead I suppressed my emotion and turned to Veritta. ‘Let me show you. Veritta, please lend me your dataslate.’
The hospitaller obediently passed her inquisitorial dataslate over. After some tweaking with my ability, I successfully streamed the pict-feed of the daemon as it was doing another round of frenzied butchering on the rebel troops.
‘This is happening now.’ I said and passed the dataslate to them. Both sisters watched what was happening on screen with horror as the relentless one-sided slaughter continued. Muffled death screams filled the cabin of the Transvector.
Both Welminah and Veritta looked shaken after witnessing what a greater daemon could do in this world, even the stoic Kira looked like she was uncomfortable after sneaking a few peeks at the dataslate. After a while, I concluded nothing more could be learned and turned off the feed. ‘Best not look at it too much,’ I said, ‘might taint your soul.’
Corruption of one’s soul and body by exposure to anything related to daemons or the immaterium is a thing in this universe. While the Sororitas are famed for their resistance to such influence, the risk was still best kept at a minimum.
‘Are you going to fight that thing? You just recovered from a fainting spell.’ Asked Welminah worriedly.
They both looked terrified. So am I inside. But letting pretty ladies down was still something I instinctively wanted to avoid, so some bravado was needed again.
I put up a brave face again and smiled to reassure them. ‘Don’t mind me, I might not look like one but I am still a primarch…’ Their faces lightened up with my bold statement just as I lamented Syrine had no legion of super soldiers under her command and finished my statement weakly, ‘... minoris.’
‘A primarch... minoris?’ Welminah quickly made a note of it. Now that she mentioned it, it made me realise I had never mentioned that term to anyone after seeing that vision.
‘Yes,’ I answered while holding up my right hand then connecting my index finger and thumb together. ‘A tiny primarch, but primarch nonetheless. The blood of the Emperor flows in me. By His will, I will find a way or this world will end.’
At the back of my mind, a sinister plan had been brewing for a while to exploit the daemon’s weakness. If that premonition of mine was correct, Syrine’s existence was the main reason why this greater daemon came to this world in the first place. Since I am its primary target, a scheme could be set up to bring it down. After all, it is only a melee monster, let’s cheese it to death.
I was still refining my schemes with the dominus when we arrived at our destination. The Transvector soon touched down on a field near to a large concentration of friendly forces.
As I stepped out of my ride I could not help but notice there were a lot of people waiting for me. Leading the welcoming party was Canoness Diadinah herself. Weirdly Alicya was by her side but I distinctly recalled she was stationed elsewhere commanding another contingent of sisters. Even Governor Khathalina was here with some of her top generals together with a Skitarii Marshal.
Its mission done, the Transvector took off with another wash of powerful downwards draft. After it left, the sound levels in the area finally returned to a level where people could converse but it was still noisy as hell. I observed my surroundings and came to the shocking realization that, for the first time in this life or the last, I was in a real warzone.
Under the late afternoon sun, lines upon lines of warmachines were everywhere, a Baneblade which I recognised to be Khathalina’s command ride was here too. There was this perpetual smell of smoke with a hint of burned gunpowder that filled the air; the constant thrumming of war equipment, be it the tank engines in the distance or the power armour backpacks nearby was inescapable. It sure felt different here compared to my perspective back on the podium.
I was still in awe of the intensity of my surroundings when Diadinah and the others approached. She knelt down while greeting me, ‘Holy Daughter.’
Following her example, the rest did the same while we were being observed by a whole field of army personnel. Personally, I just felt like digging up a hole and hiding inside it because of the sheer level of tension I was experiencing from the level of reverence on open display.
‘Please rise, we have urgent matters to discuss and time is short.’ I said while doing my best to suppress the unbearable level of social anxiety bubbling inside me.
With that done, we were soon moving towards a makeshift command tent with table setup not too far from the landing site. While walking towards the tent, my superhuman level of hearing was soon picking up a lot of hushed but excited chatter, and through my connection to the network, I noticed some random bursts of vox messages were going around in the area.
‘She is here in the flesh!’ ‘Is that… the singing saint from just now?’ ‘Wait what? That hologram was a real person?’ ‘Come and see! She is here!’ ‘I still can’t get that song out of my head…’
Singing Saint? A song? Welminah did mention something about a song, back then I was so fixated on the daemon crisis the matter was brushed aside but now it piqued my interest.
Intrigued by the chatters, I continued walking while my mind dove into a few cogitators in the area with records of recent events to see what had really happened. I managed to get hold of some footage of that time and began going through the recordings and…
WHAT IN THE FREAKING NAME OF THRONE?!
I watched in disbelief as a recording of myself doing a live solo of “Beautiful World” in the middle of the battlefield streamed in my vision. The level of shocking cringe was too much, I shuddered so hard that it broke my stride. Losing my balance, I almost fell to the ground but a vigilant Veritta who was always one step behind me saved the day by grabbing me.
Naturally, this caused another commotion and put the issue of my health into focus again. ‘No, no, I am fine, really! We need to do this, this world and its people need this.’
Trying to hide my embarrassment, I was adamant on not delaying the meeting and pushed on, then I noticed their subtle expressions of concern turned to admiration. By then the misunderstandings had gone down so many layers I gave up on explaining. Let’s just… get to the matters at hand.
Soon another emergency meeting was underway in the makeshift command tent with holographic busts of Kryptorer and Thaberus joining remotely. The situation was becoming really urgent so I went straight to the point. ‘Everyone, despite your valiant efforts, our true enemy was more sinister than we anticipated. Inquisitor, could you please brief everyone here on the situation?’
Thaberus’ hologram nodded grimly and started speaking, ‘Yes, as mentioned we arrived only to a ruined stronghold with all the cultists dead on site. The heretics had been toying with power beyond their control and paid the price for their folly. Unfortunately there is now a greater daemon on the loose and currently heading your way.’
‘Pardon me, but are we talking about a single enemy?’ One of the generals asked. ‘Surely with the amount of troops we have here we can simply overcome it with sheer fire power?’
Thaberus shook his head, ‘This is an enemy we cannot defeat by simply continuously throwing troops and materiel at it, my psykers had been monitoring it and found the warp spawn seemed to be gaining strength with each victim killed. Our only hope is to subject it with an overwhelming amount of firepower in a very short span of time to banish it back to the warp, but we must do it quickly before it becomes too powerful.’
I nodded in agreement and continued, ‘Exactly, earlier during the brief period when I fainted, a revelation came to me about the nature of this greater daemon.’ The mention of a revelation had them all perked up, I then continued to speak and dropped my plan, ‘for reasons unknown, its arrival appears to have something to do with me being its primary target. I will act as the bait, if the revelation turns out to be true, we can probably bring it down before it becomes unstoppable.’
The statement brought out a round of murmurs and the sisters objected to the plan out of concern for my safety, but I vetoed them since no better option was on the table and everything was on the line.
‘What if it does not take the bait?’ Khathalina asked.
‘Then we will throw everything we have at it but with a much lower chance of success. If that fails I will have no choice but to enact Exterminatus on Nusquam as the planet and its …assets cannot be allowed to fall into the possession of the great enemy.’ Thaberus replied to the petrified Nusquamese present.
That settled, I turned to Kryptorer’s hologram, ‘Krypto, can the special weapon be ready in time?’ The dominus bowed and replied, ‘it is in the process of being prepared and will be ready for deployment soon.’
‘Good, please make haste,’ I then turned to the canoness, ‘Diadinah, how are my requests coming along on your end?’
Diadinah bowed, put her hand on Alicya’s shoulder and replied, ‘They are all ready, your driver is here. I summoned her after receiving your directive and she drove over quickly.’
‘Alicya?’ I was surprised.
‘Yes, she is one of the highest record holders for tactical driving in our Order after all.’ Diadianah said and Alicya nodded to me with confidence.
The mental image of a delinquent looking Alicya drifting with a rhino tank appeared in my mind, almost making me laugh out loud as it seemed so far off from the palatine I knew.
Suddenly a light rain started to drizzle and everyone present looked up with a frown, but I felt my skin start to crawl with goose bumps.
This is no natural rain.
I looked to the sky and felt a suffocating presence in the air, it was as if the world itself was weeping and crying out for help.
Ready or not, we need to engage the greater daemon before it is too late.