The Astronomican, a giant psychic beacon located on planet Earth, was the one thing that binds the Imperium of Man together in this grimdark universe. It was the symbol of unity both spiritually and literally for the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man.
Without the psychic light of the Astronomican to guide the starships of the Imperium, faster than light warp travel between the vast distances of imperial worlds would become so impractical the empire would cease to function.
Palatine Alicya gasped at the unspoken implications. ‘So we are cut off from any chance of outer reinforcements against what that renegade marine mentioned was coming?’
‘Intriguing.’ Kryptorer voiced his thoughts and turned to me. ‘Was that why you were so adamant about immediately activating this psychic beacon when we just arrived, Omnissian princess?’
Wait, what? Syrine did that? This place is the heart of a psychic beacon? And why the princess title?
The arch dominus’ statement made everyone look straight at me, and of course, I didn’t have the answer. My mind was flooded with an alarming amount of warning sirens from what I just heard. A psychic beacon alone was already a huge deal in its own right, plus the Astronomican going offline now of all times? This had all the hallmarks of a world-ending event looming on the horizon.
[Severe stress detected]
[Cogitatio Acceleratio auto activated]
It was then that the thought acceleration power automatically activated again. From my experience, every time it happened, I would have like twenty to thirty seconds of extremely dilated time to look around and organise my thoughts when it was just the blink of an eye in real-time. From my brief respite, I realised my immediate concerns were not the doomsday scenario but to bullshit myself out of this soft interrogation.
Working on a hunch, I quickly ran [Analytica] on all the people around me to confirm something I noticed. As expected, only readings from Alicya, Kryptorer and Thaberus came back with their respective names. The three newcomers that looked like inquisitorial hired guns and the imperial assassin all came back nameless but confirmed their human status; except for the assassin, her reading returned as transhuman, confirming my suspicion of her being an Officio Assassinorum operative.
Deducing from what I knew, Kryptorer and Syrine were acquainted and that was why the first [Analytica] readings returned with his name even though he had never mentioned it.
Thaberus’ initial reading came back nameless but the inquisitor’s name appeared on the second reading after his self-introduction, likewise Alicya’s mannerisms definitely indicated this was the first time we met. By rounding out all the information gathered thus far, I saw an opening and tried my luck directing the conversation.
‘Krypto. You… you left me all alone during the activation ritual?’ I asked, carefully tuning my voice to just the right mix between curiosity and outrage. My probing question made the arch dominus jolted despite his massive size.
‘Allow me to explain,’ a seemingly agitated Kryptorer quickly offered, ‘It was five hours into the activation and you were still in the state of trance when the inquisitor’s party and the sisters showed up.’
New information. I looked at him silently, buying time to digest what he just said, but that seemed only to make him more desperate to defend his actions.
‘After verifying their identity and waiting for another two hours, the whole system was acting up, so the inquisitor and I decided to venture further into the chamber to see what we could do while the sisters offered to stay behind and look after you. I took all the Kataphron units with me in case of the presence of ancient dormant sentries. Without your authorisation to pacify such entities, any such encounter without overwhelming firepower would be catastrophic to the function of this marvellous technology.’
The arch dominus was talking so fast he was giving me the impression of a child explaining himself after being caught red-handed doing something forbidden by his parents.
‘In hindsight,’ Thaberus said, ‘we were probably being monitored, the timing of their attack was impeccable.’ ‘So the insurgents attempted to murder the holy daughter?’ Alicya asked, fuming with righteous fury.
‘That remained to be seen. All we know is the arch dominus’ party arrival on this planet had threatened the rebels’ plan enough for them to reveal their assets, including the presence of renegade Astartes amongst their ranks.’ Thaberus said before turning his attention back on me.
‘Now, lady…’ he looked at me expectantly.
‘Syrine.’ I handed him the only accurate information I knew.
‘Lady Syrine, would you care to enlighten us? Who are you, how do you know this place and why did you activate this massive psychic beacon?’ He was trying to be civilised about his questioning now, but seriously, that did not put a dent on his intimidation value one bit.
So much for diversions.
‘I…’, my mouth opened but no answer came to mind, desperate for a way out, I ran [Cogitatio Acceleratio] again and tried to use the small period of time dilation to dig into my mind like the trick I did before with the Low Gothic tongue in search for an answer for my predicament. The world slowed again, I closed my eyes to cut off distraction and my consciousness looked inward.
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Why was Syrine here? Tell me.
I probed inwards and felt a sense of resistance.
Tell me, I need to know.
A sense of unspoken understanding rose inside me: you are not ready.
No, an inquisitor is breathing down on my neck, tell me.
At first, nothing happened, then slowly a hint of a vision flashed for a split second and my mind registered something so terrifying it broke my trance. When I opened my eyes, my face was merely inches away from the floor. Apparently, the assassin’s inhuman reflexes had rescued me from a major self-inflicted embarrassment by stopping my body mid-collapse. I turned my head to the assassin only to see her eyeing me with a cold stare.
It was still embarrassing enough and I could only thank her with a wry smile. Sister Alicya quickly aided me back on my feet and protested. ‘Lady Syrine is not in the condition for this.’ ‘Inquisitor Thorn, I would like to reaffirm my request to you to not further burden my benefactor.’ Kryptorer backed her up.
The atmosphere tensed up again; while still somewhat dazed I looked around and noticed for the first time the individuals gathered here could probably affect the fate of billions of people with their actions. An inquisitor, with theoretically absolute authority on imperial matters, an arch dominus, who proclaimed himself as the highest-ranking of his cult on the planet, a palatine sister of battle, whose rank was below a canoness of the Adepta Sororitas order … and Syrine, me.
Whoever Syrine was, she was not your ordinary girl next door seeing how Kryptorer treated her with a degree of veneration, and that was even before looking into that ridiculous ‘prophesied true daughter of the Emperor’ story Sister Alicya spoke of.
Within a heartbeat, I somehow got a solid hold of the current situation. What’s up with this superhuman level clarity of thinking? But my concern was on the rapidly developing situation, so I cut straight into the main current issues at hand.
‘My memory is not good for now. But correct me if I got this wrong, we are now cut off from the wider Imperium and more renegade marines are coming. Did this world request for reinforcements yet and what was this uprising suppression you spoke of, sister Alicya?’
Finally given the chance to talk, Alicya was only too happy to quickly brief me about the plight of their world. A local lord who was the brother of the current planetary governor had taken up arms against the ruling regime with the help of questionable factions and a full-blown civil war was happening even as we speak.
The minor order of Adepta Sororitas stationed on the planet initially stayed neutral in the ‘family dispute’ but later threw their support to the incumbent governor when they received numerous reports about unknown and sketchy forces that were operating under the usurper lord’s faction.
The uprising faction then showed their true colours by massacring the psykers of Adeptus Astra Telepathica chamber to a man, almost cutting off any off-world communication entirely. By then what looked like a power grab at the planetary governor seat had become a separatist movement in all but name and a full-scale war soon followed.
Even with the aid of the Adepta Sororitas, the governor’s forces had a hard time dealing with the rebels, further proving the latter had help from unseen players. The fighting was so fierce that a sizable portion of the Order had martyred themselves in it and Alicya was made probationary palatine despite being relatively young for the position.
Now according to the lore I knew, power-grabbing is something the Imperium would usually turn a blind eye to as long as whoever won the seat of power cooperated fully with the empire. But a separationist movement with the aid of renegade space marines? That would open up proper reasons to request urgent reinforcement from the wider Imperium and usually, loyalist Astartes chapters would be racing over to curb stomp the usurpers in such circumstances.
That was when Thaberus broke the bad news: the lone surviving astropath was under his care in a secure location but the psyker had since failed to send out any messages due to unusual warp activities.
‘Unacceptable.’ Kryptorer declared suddenly. ‘The instability caused by this war threatens the wondrous work of the Omnissiah.’ I looked at the arch dominus and suddenly recalled how obsessive their kind was to treasuring technological wonders and had a really bad feeling about this uprising consisting of renegade marines, so I put my theory to the test.
‘Krypto, if they win they might destroy all this, can you help?’
Kryptorer turned his massive body to me and spoke. ‘Affirmative, twelve hours ago I had tapped into the main information network of this planet and have been conversing with the local adepts of my order, appraising the situation.’ He paused, then continued.
‘From my analysis, the opposition appears to have Astartes level background support in key logistics, electronic and communications warfare. That was why they were having the upper hand.’ Sensing his confidence, I followed up. ‘Will that be a problem for you?’
‘Inconceivable.’ He made a sound that was halfway between scoffing and air expulsion. ‘For the others, it might be difficult. But electronic communications warfare happens to be one of my primary research topics and we have the support of a whole starship’s worth of advanced cogitators in orbit. My analysis shows that a key breakthrough development can be conceptualised within the next seventy-two hours if my resources are deployed to aid the governor.’
It was at this moment a skull probe, literally a drone built into a human skull flew in from nowhere and dropped something into the dominus' hand. He opened his metallic palm for everyone to see the item. It was a boxy spidery thing no bigger than a matchbox.
‘This device,’ he said with his metallic voice, ‘is an Astartes grade sentry probe utilized by some of the stealthier chapters, and how they knew when to attack just now.’
‘I have erred in underestimating our opponent and caused harm to you, Omnissian princess.’ He bowed to me. ‘Allow me to atone by securing victory for the governor and thus safeguarding the glorious work of the Omnissiah.’
I nodded, with that secured I turned to Thaberus. ‘Will you allow us to help, inquisitor?’ ‘Well, they had renegade Astartes on their side so their heresy was all but confirmed. In the light of the Emperor’s domain being threatened here, I would allow it for now and will be sorting out your case later. Palatine Alicya, you should take the arch dominus to the governor and Canoness Diadinah immediately and update them on the situation.’
‘What about Lady Syrine?’ Alicya asked.
‘Without a valid reason, she should never be anywhere near the frontline. Only Omnissiah knows what will happen to this psychic beacon should something happen to her.’ Kryptorer said.
Thanks! I said internally to Kryptorer as the frontline was the last place I wanted to go. That said, I surveyed the carnage left behind by the gunfight and didn’t feel like sticking around either. ‘Maybe I can try helping with the call for reinforcements that the Astropath was having problems sending out?’ I enquired simply for the heck of it.
To my surprise, Thaberus nodded.