So we were to split up after that, Kryptorer would join Sister Alicya to make haste to the front line and there they would link up with the other battle sisters and the governor’s forces to hopefully put a stop to the uprising. Whereas I would follow Thaberus’ party to the location where the last astropath on the planet was kept secure.
Seemingly satisfied with my response, the arch dominus then turned to Thaberus. ‘Inquisitor Thorn, I will now leave Lady Syrine’s wellbeing in your capable hands. Please see to it that no harm would come to her while she is in your care. Fail to do so and I guarantee you will receive more than just a formal protest from me and my order.’
Now he just sounds like a nagging old dad … wait, did he just threaten an inquisitor?
‘I will do that and meanwhile await your good news within the next seventy-two hours, Arch Dominus.’ Thaberus simply replied.
With that, we parted leaving a whole chamber of burned bodies and wounded behind. I followed Thaberus’ group down the route where the gunmen came from and walked through a seemingly endless amount of corridors and strange indoor interiors.
We were a party of six, the Inquisitor Thaberus himself was leading at the front, right behind him was interrogator Amael, followed by acolyte Herlindya, then me and Rantor and finally the fear-inducing assassin Niandra guarding our back.
Rantor Crane was a rough-looking man who looked to be in his late thirties, he was what you would expect of stereotypical inquisitorial henchmen with a massive amount of wargear hung around his carapace armour while carrying a large hot-shot volley gun as if it was the easiest thing to do in this world.
Amael Frieden the interrogator was quiet and reserved, he seemed to be in his late twenties, had dark blonde hair and could be considered quite handsome; if this was a story about the rise of a promising imperial agent he would fit right in as the protagonist.
Herlindya Winsen, the female acolyte was a nice looking brunette with shoulder-length hair who also seemed to be in her late twenties, she too was reserved in her mannerism but seemed friendly enough.
I had to emphasise the part of “seemed to be” for their respective ages, from my understanding of the lore of this universe being agents of the inquisition meant that these individuals would have access to life-prolonging rejuvenat treatments, coupled that with faster than light warp travel between star systems making accurate age guessing a much messier process than I was accustomed to.
Then there was Niandra who was behind my back, no doubt to keep an eye on me. I knew she was there, but no footsteps could be heard from behind. Every time I remembered she was behind me the memory of her dragging the limbless marine with a massive amount of blood dripping everywhere would resurface.
She was just horrifying. Speaking of the amputated marine, Thaberus had decided he was to be temporarily left to the sisters to be imprisoned inside their monastery nearby.
Rantor was the most talkative individual among the retinue members after we got acquainted, thanking me openly once he had the chance. ‘Hey, back then it was you who warned us of that flamer right? Amael and I would have been toast if it wasn’t for your heads-up, that was much appreciated and I owe you one for it.’ The large man then laughed heartily and continued, ‘Usually, it is my job to hurt people and get thanks for it but I had my hands full just trying not to get shot back there.’ Both Amael and Herlindya remained distantly neutral after their brief self-introduction. As far as I could tell Thaberus neither encouraged nor forbade his retinue from interacting with me.
The inquisitor himself was always leading in the front and never once looked back since we left that chamber, ever marching purposefully forward. We walked and walked, finally exiting from a seemingly impossibly huge complex to the outdoors. The sky was a weird dirty purple instead of the classic blue. Just nearby was a landing pad with a huge black and dark-red coloured gunship of unknown pattern resting on top of it.
My old hobbyist self kicked in as I gawked at the unfamiliar black and dark red armoured bulk and pointed at it. ‘What pattern is that gunship? That looks too long for a stormraven but too tall for a fire raptor.’
‘Wow, someone knows her gunship patterns.’ Remarked Rantor with a chuckle while the rest of the group stayed quiet.
The gunship was much larger at close-up inspection than I imagined and definitely looked like a hybrid variant between a stormraven and a fire raptor. A huge stylised “I” was prominently displayed on the side of the gunship and I could just envision the folks excelling at kitbashing going to town to create this beautiful machine.
The pilot must have known we were coming as the rear hatch opened up without prompting and we entered the gunship through it. Cool, temperature-controlled air greeted us, and some of the retinue members sighed with relief. The interior of the gunship was more spacious than I imagined, probably due to the initial schematics which was meant for armoured space marines that could reach eight feet in height. They even had a washing closet installed inside the gunship.
It was then I remembered the Stormraven gunship of the space marines could serve as an orbital dropship, which probably meant this thing could break orbit and link up with any starships orbiting the planet, thus the presence of such a facility for long transits.
After settling down on my assigned seat, I was hit by a massive wave of mental fatigue, so I dutifully strapped on my safety harness even as I longed to doze off immediately. Just as I finished fastening the centrepiece of the harness that straps to my chest, I felt the sensation of solid material pressing against my skin. Puzzled, I dug beneath my collar and pulled out a necklace with an Aquila pendant attached to an exquisite piece of metallic string chain of unknown material.
The Aquila pendant itself was shaped into an old school symbol of Imperium, a stylised double-headed eagle with circular curve wings. Both the string chain and pendant had a glorious golden finishing that was just screaming “I am exorbitantly expensive” from its appearance. Curious but on the verge of dozing off, before I realised it [Analytica] was run on the pendant.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I am just so tired. I wanted to laugh out loud at myself for running the ability on an object… then a line of words appeared.
Imperial Authority Rosette, gene-locked to: Syrine.
My sight froze on the words. Didn’t Kryptorer mention something about needing my authority? So this is no mere jewellery? It looks gorgeous, I turned in my hand, marvelling at how it reflected all the lights from the interior of the gunship. While I was drowning in thoughts the gunship started moving. Soon the motion with the monotonous ambient sound inside the gunship combined with mental fatigue hit me like a rock and I felt myself drifting off while holding on to the pendant.
* * *
…
……
<++ ACCESSING… One (1) responding machine spirit within the vicinity. Connect? YES/NO ++>
<…Yes?>
<++ Connecting… connection established.++>
<++ Accessing machine spirit via ethernet link ++>
<++ Authority confirmed and accepted. We are ready to serve.++>
<++Welcome onboard Inquisitorial gunship ‘Flameraven’ #machineID ********-*******-*********. Glory to Omnissiah and him on Earth. We await your command, Authority. ++>
<… Command? Show me.>
<++/List show [1] Ship status [2] Weapon status [3] Auspex reading [4] Ship log [5] ..... ++>
<++/List Weapons
++[1] Front-mounted twin multi melta … system functional++
++[2] Left sponson twin heavy bolter … system functional++
++[3] Right sponson twin heavy bolter … system functional++
++[4] Left underwing twin lascannon … system functional++
++[5] Right underwing twin lascannon … system functional++
++[6] Chaff-Flare launcher … system functional++ >
In my dreamy state I selected the twin multi melta listing, suddenly a video feed popped up in my vision and it was showing the front view of the gunship where the weapon was aiming. The moment I focused on the video feed, another mental prompt popped up.
<++Manual override?++>
Huh, why not?
Additional interfaces appeared on the video feed, showing the estimated projectile path and the guns were obeying my command pointing in the direction I wanted.
Huh, this definitely feels like a certain battlefield game I played.
Since all I could see were clouds on a dirty purple sky, I soon got bored and exited the weapon video feed. Next, I tried the auspex section. Immediately a 3-dimensional image of the gunship’s surroundings materialised inside my mind.
Wow, so high tech! Upon closer inspection, I could zoom in and out, pan the auspex reading around inside my head. When the view was zoomed out to the furthest setting, I could even see the details of terrain passing beneath us in real-time.
This is nice, but I am so tired.
…
……
………
<++Priority Alert: Auspex ERROR++>
<++Priority Alert: Weapons Locked-On Warning… ERROR++>
<++Priority Alert: Weapons Locked-On Warning… ERROR++>
<++Priority Alert: Weapons Locked-On Warning… ERROR++>
<++Priority Alert: Weapons Locked-On Warning… ERROR++>
…!
* * *
Something was not right, I broke from my trance-like light sleep and found myself still strapped to the chair with the pendant in my hand on a flying gunship. The air was still nice and cold but a sense of unspeakable dread started to well up.
While securing the pendant back inside my robe I looked around and noticed only Niandra was still up and alert sitting in a corner. Thaberus was nowhere to be seen but if I recall correctly he went forward to the cockpit the moment we boarded, whereas the trio of henchmen were fast asleep just across my seat.
After a moment of hesitation, I signalled for Niandra to come over, this was no time for subtlety. The assassin was slightly puzzled at first but quickly came to my side.
‘Yes?’ She asked with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance.
‘Is the name of this ship Flameraven?’
She slowly nodded, somehow her pretty cold face got colder. Being a quick one, she might have deduced something was up since no one had told me the name of the gunship until now. But the shock I received was no less than hers. That she all but confirmed the name of Flameraven meant the weird communion I had just now was not some fluke, a connection did happen between me and the ship.
If this is a lucid dream, it just keeps getting better and better. Putting up a tone as serious as I could, I delivered my warning. ‘In this case, I am afraid we might be under attack. There may be at least four weapon systems locking on to this ship and the ship’s auspex is probably being jammed.’
‘How do you know that?’
Right, how? Thinking quickly, I told her the story in a way people in this world could understand.
‘The machine spirit told me, it called itself Flameraven.’
To put a long story short, the basic understanding of technology had regressed so much in the grimdark universe the common explanation of machines having spirits, thus ‘machine spirit’ was widely accepted for how advanced machinery works around here, I was just going with the flow to put my point across.
Niandra looked straight at me for a moment before putting her hand on her ear to put a vox through, probably to Thaberus.
‘Sir? Our guest warns of imminent attacks on the Flameraven. Apparently, the machine spirit told her so.’ She then listened for a little while before suddenly started unfastening my harness with haste.
‘Niandra?’ Startled by her action, I inquired hastily. She gave me this long look before answering, ‘we are going to the cockpit, the attack you mentioned is coming.’