The serenity of early morning was broken by an extra number of gunships patrolling over the monastery.
A lot of important people had arrived for a meeting called by Thaberus. While the notion of holding a high level meeting about the planet’s security in a Sororitas monastery was kinda weird, my guess was that my presence had shifted the centre of power.
Escorted by Welminah towards the designated meeting room, I was feeling off despite having just bathed and put on a fresh set of white robes. I couldn’t sleep since returning from the library and just got off from a vox call with Thaberus.
The inquisitor sounded happy with my portrait work of the arch-heretic and asked a few questions about it. Unfortunately other than the man’s appearance, the way he sounded, plus the moniker of “Master”, I had little to offer.
On the side note, I was suffering from a light headache. It was noteworthy on its own since this body rarely if ever experienced illness; it appeared to be a consequence of using that power in the library.
The spell worked, I now had the whole library collection at the back of my mind and could summon the material at will. It was like having a private wikipedia inside my head, and will need some time getting used to. While it felt strange and awesome to have instant access to so much information, most of my attention was spent contemplating the vision that had left me shaken.
That greater daemon is still holding a grudge against me?
This was no joking matter, without access to severe methods and resources, daemons in this universe could not be truly killed. Destruction of their body in the physical world merely sent their essence back to the Warp, where they were free to regain strength and plot their revenge.
In the official lore a captain of the Grey Knights, the super-secretive space marines that specialises in anti-daemon warfare, had pissed off a powerful greater daemon and it haunted the poor guy for hundreds of years despite it being defeated and “slain” multiple times.
I was zoning out and Welminah seemed to notice it. She started shooting discreet, concerned glances at me. I knew from her thoughts she was worried if I was somehow being upset by the bloody events at the scholastica.
In truth, my greater concern lay in the swiftness with which I felt indifference towards the recent carnage. The old me would have still been crapping myself with yesterday’s brutality which I had both witnessed and dished out in equal measure, but it took the hint of a vengeful greater daemon to get me alarmed. It felt like a fundamental part of what made me as a person was changing, and that notion was deeply disturbing.
We passed through many security checkpoints and eventually reached the designated meeting room. The battle sisters guarding the entrance bowed and opened the heavy set of doors for us.
Being the centre of attention was a lot of hassle; arriving too early would put pressure on the attendees, while on the flipside coming late might be perceived as being arrogant. Thanks to Welminah’s meticulous tracking of the happenings, the timing of my arrival was perfect as the last of the other VIPs had just arrived not long ago.
Proper observance of protocol is just tedious.
I took a look at the grand meeting room and was jolted by the sheer prestige of the gathered crowd. Seated in the centre of the room was Thaberus, and judging by his extra ruggedness the inquisitor had not slept since yesterday. Primaris Psyker Yehai was standing on his left while to his right stood Interrogator Amael, Herlindya’s not-so-secret boyfriend who I had not seen for a while.
Fully geared up in a form fitting tactical outfit and looking sharp, the interrogator was the portrait of a dashing protagonist that would fit perfectly as a main character. Herlindya herself was standing with Niandra a few steps behind the inquisitor.
Sitting across Thaberus was the Planetary Governor Khatalina herself in the flesh. Surrounded by her advisors, the governor looked stunning in her tailor-fitted, long-sleeved deep purple jacket that was adorned with intricate golden embroidery of ornate patterns. Completing her classy look was a statement collar necklace featuring her house crest made with precious gems and metals. Khatalina was probably not a morning person, she appeared slightly tired and seemed to be doing her best to suppress a yawn. Upon seeing my entrance however, she immediately straightened up.
Seated beside the governor was Lord General Krueber, an elderly gentleman who was the current supreme commander of the Planetary Defense Force; the man looked to be quite the character with his uptight uniform decorated with rows of medals, and on his hawkish face was a finely groomed but greying imperial moustache.
Also seated was another gentleman who wore an elaborate Arbites uniform. If my hunch was correct he must be the Arbites Marshal who had called Thaberus to apologise for the shooting incident.
Across the marshal sat a lady with her back against me. From the uniforms of people around her I guessed she must be the current head of Magistratum, basically the top cop of the planet’s local law enforcement.
Then there was the venue’s host, Diadinah herself, who was seated between the inquisitor and the governor. The hooded canoness was flanked by Selisa and Helenta, two of her more senior palatines. The sisters formed the only power-armoured figures in the room.
Sitting across from the sisters with his back to me was Archdeacon Ricene, leader of the Ecclesiastical high hat group. Since the cardinal had yet to return, Ricene was for the moment the top religious figure on the planet. Maylin was standing amongst the advisors behind him.
The sole Mechanicus representative was Magos Balpradus, the tech-priest had but a servo-skull by his side. Except for the magos who was the odd one out, every seated individual had a few advisors or members of retinue standing close to them.
It would not be an understatement to say the combined power and influence of people here could decide the fate of the planet. Unlike me, everyone present was more appropriately dressed for the occasion.
White robes twenty four seven? What was I thinking and why did Welminah say nothing?
While I was contemplating my fashion predicament, my entrance had been noted by the group of elites. As one, every seated person in the room stood up, then all the people in the room bowed to me.
Huh. Forget about the wardrobe, I must say something.
Despite having thought acceleration and all the extra knowledge inside my head, nothing appropriate came to mind. A heartbeat later I decided a simple approach was the best. Just treat this like an early office meeting, the only part that needed getting used to was the notion that I was the big shot.
‘Good morning,’ I said with a smile and solicited back a chorus of replies. Under everyone’s watchful gaze, I walked towards an empty seat that was obviously meant for me and quietly sat down. I was seated to Thaberus’ right side and to my right was Diadinah.
After everyone settled down, Thaberus spoke up. ‘By the grace of the Golden Throne, I thank you all for coming on such short notice. This is not a social event, so I will cut short on the pleasantries. Marshal Gallianor, Grand Magister Abenni, meet Lady Syrine, the living saint candidate.’
I exchanged glances and nodded with both of them. Gallianor was quite imposing, muscular with a large squarish jaw that brandished a goatee. The man’s left eye was a bionic replacement, a glowing blue orb. Abenni was a dark skinned lady with a stern demeanour, she reminded me of the no-nonsense disciplinary aunt archetype. Unlike the few true blue-blooded aristocrats present, she exuded a sense of groundedness, devoid of any airs of nobility in the way she carried herself.
While both had maintained their impassive facade, their inner reaction of meeting me for the first time was vastly different. Gallianor’s surface thoughts revealed he was still grateful for me going easy on them, while Abenni was… awestruck. I could tell that much with how her breathing pattern suddenly deepened, both her eye pupils had dilated considerably, and her surface thoughts were a blank wash of ecstatic emotions.
‘We are starting now,’ Thaberus declared, ‘if you would excuse me, yesterday was quite draining so I will let Interrogator Amael brief you all on my behalf.’
The meeting commenced and the lights were dimmed before they turned on the holographic projector in the middle of the table, bathing everyone’s face in colours mirroring the projections. It was like a powerpoint presentation but with three-dimensional images floating in the air instead of on a boring white screen.
Amael started his briefing, the holographic images changing as he gave a summary to all the VIPs. Yesterday more than a hundred armed cultists had taken part in the assault of the Scholastica Psykana at about lunch time.
Foul sorceries were attributed to how the Chaos worshippers were able to bypass the scholastica’s many defences that were both physical and psychic in nature, it also explained how they were able to dig their way in undetected.
By estimations it must have taken them days of digging to breach the place and the attack came as a complete surprise. Fortunately security of the facility had just been buffed up recently, but even so they barely held their ground, resulting in a sizable number of untrained psykers being captured, their current whereabouts unknown.
Lord Prefector Arkansor, master of the scholastica, was found dead inside his office with his head crushed. The cause of death was determined to be a powerful psychic attack, resulting in catastrophic cranial trauma. Arkansor’s time of death was pinpointed to be just before the assault began.
‘Lords and ladies, I have a question,’ Abenni voiced with a raised hand. If the Interrogator was annoyed he showed no sign, instead he beckoned her to speak.
‘Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t understand why we can’t track down the captured psykers,’ asked Abenni as she threw a quick glance at Yehai. ‘From my understanding, a large group of untrained psykers should not be difficult to locate considering we have access to skilled specialists.’
‘A logical question, Grand Magister Abenni,’ Amael replied. ‘If you are referring to the brightness of their souls that should be easy for our psykers to pick up, it would appear to be the case on paper.’
At this point I could see some of the attendees perking up on this topic, no doubt having the same question on their minds. Amael’s expression darkened as he continued. ‘Unfortunately there are ways the heretics can overcome this. Beside the method of using psychic dampening material to shield the prisoners, there are other more… unscrupulous and outright heretical methods to achieve the result.’
Now that he mentioned it, I had seen one of those methods in a comic. It involved utilising nulls like Zaki as living anti psychic field generators. Since the null in question just needed to be alive for the purpose, to cut down chances of complications it was not uncommon for the unlucky person to be either heavily drugged or outright comatosed, to be used like a living instrument.
In said comic, a null was comatosed with all limbs cut off before being embedded inside a cargo container with minimal life support to shield an important shipment’s psychic signature.
I suddenly had a horrible notion and wondered if that could be the fate awaiting Zaki if we did not intervene. Contemplating such a possibility made me wince, and my hands involuntarily clenched into fists. Amael did not elaborate further on the terrible subject and started providing numbers for the counter strike operation.
About a hundred heavily armed cultists were present at the facility when the Inquisition-led Sororitas counter strike operation commenced. Fewer than twenty cultists had survived the clash while the Sororitas suffered but a few injuries. At the moment, they were being held in the dungeon right below us.
Marshal Gallianor could not hide his astonishment about the final tally. ‘No casualties? Remarkable! Canoness Diadinah, allow me to compliment your Order on this achievement.’
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Diadinah responded courteously, ‘thank you, marshal. But I must attribute this incredible feat to both the God-Emperor’s blessing and Lady Syrine’s leadership, she was the one commanding in the front yesterday.’ Her statement turned the whole room’s attention to me, something I wasn’t too pleased about.
Thinking fast, I threw out counter compliments like a fighter jet throwing decoy flares to deflect the heat. ‘I might have contributed my part, this result would not be possible without the exceptional abilities of the battle sisters and the combined effort of other agencies like the Arbites and Magistratum.’
The reactions of the crowd were interesting; most were impressed by my “humbleness” while some were stunned by the fact I even took part in the operation. A few were quietly doubting if the tally was exaggerated, a totally one sided feat like that would usually involve unleashing Astartes on unsuspecting targets.
Amael pulled a dry cough and we continued, the projection changing to show the heads of two individuals in three dimensional images, both spinning slowly in the air. One of them was the deceased Mokitarr, the other I didn’t recognise.
‘These two were the top heretic commanders on site, one chose to end his life by ingesting a lethal poison upon capture, while the other sustained injuries during action and is presently in critical condition. Alarmingly both men had served in the Planetary Defense Force, we are currently looking into their records to determine…’
‘Unforgivable!’ Lord General Krueber interrupted. ‘I am deeply ashamed by the actions of these individuals! By the Golden Throne, I swear you have the full cooperation from the entire planetary defence force for your investigations in this matter.’ The man was clearly upset, he was breathing heavily, his signature moustache trembling with barely concealed boiling anger.
While having traitors come out from your organisation was a big deal, personally I won’t put all the blame on him as the army was usually one of the first places a Chaos cult would infiltrate, and with an organisation that big you were bound to find some people who would be willing to switch sides. The ironic part for me was that the second guy had survived despite initially being ordered to be eliminated by Thaberus himself. Back then the cultists were so overwhelmed by us, Niandra found the time to reconfirm her order as the heretic commander was dying in his own pool of blood.
‘The inquisition welcomes your declaration and will remember your promise, lord general,’ Amael answered politely before continuing. ‘Next, we have one major breakthrough in our efforts against these heretics.’ In the next instance my handy work, the three dimensional portrait of the mysterious arch-heretic, appeared on the holographic projection.
‘From information recently acquired, we believe this individual to be the supreme leader of all the Chaos cults operating in Nusquam,’ Amael dropped the bombshell flatly. The room went quiet and a curious change in the air could be perceived. Time slowed down as my senses tuned up, objects became sharper, colours appeared more vibrant and sounds became clearer.
It took a moment for me to realise my body had undergone a fight or flight response to a potential threat nearby. It was Niandra. While the imperial assassin didn’t move at all, I sensed her subtle readiness to pounce. It took another heartbeat for me to conclude she was not aiming at me but rather she was locking down her attention to all the people in the room.
Meanwhile, Yehai had silently increased her power circulation, the otherworldly throbbing of her psychic might was unmistakable. At the same time Thaberus had gone full sinister Gendo Ikari mode, he even completed the act with the infamous conspiratorial finger-tenting pose.
This is another one of his tests.
Eyes glinting like the inquisition emblem on top of his hat, the inquisitor silently surveyed everyone’s reactions, his gaze scanning for any delicate indicators of betrayals, looking for anyone who might unwittingly be caught off guard and reveal their true allegiance.
The reactions of the crowd was varied, most of the standing advisors were taken aback by the life-like portrait. Khatalina’s brow furrowed, her expression was one of surprise and disgust.
Lord General Krueber and Marshal Gallianor had quite similar reactions, both men remained stoic on the surface while sizing up the cult leader, looking for any perceived weakness and already planning on imaginary attacks.
Diadinah and both her palatines narrowed their eyes as they studied the rotating portrait with cold disdain, one could feel the righteous fury behind their burning gaze.
Archdeacon Ricene’s expression was one of open revulsion and anger. Oddly, his right hand hovered slightly, suggesting that the archdeacon almost instinctively began to condemn the person in the portrait, only to halt himself from the futile gesture at the last second.
Grand Magister Abenni’s expression switched from being taken aback to defiance in the blink of an eye. Then there was Magos Balpradus, the tech-priest simply remained motionless.
The tense moment suspended for a while, just as I was assuming it would pass without incident the inquisitor suddenly spoke up with his unnerving voice, spooking the room into attention.
‘Anyone recognises this pitiful excuse for a human?’
After a flurry of silent head shakes, the inquisitor continued. ‘While we have little solid information, our many investigations led us to believe this man had recently become active again after a short period of inactivity since the warp breach incident. We have no doubt this arch-heretic was the individual responsible for the near damnation of Nusquam, the recent Scholastica Psykana attack shows he has not given up on that objective.’
Thaberus paused, letting his words sink in before speaking again. ‘Make no mistake, until this person is exterminated, the very existence of this imperial world is in jeopardy. I would also like to take this opportunity to disclose that all attempts in making contact with the wider Imperium outside the sub-sector have yet to yield any results.’
Everyone’s expression darkened on the grim news while Thaberus continued. ‘As such, Nusquam with its psychic beacon has become the key to keeping the sub-sector coherent. By the decree of my superior Lord Solimus, Grand Master of the Inquisition of Ordo Terminus Obscura, the security of this planet is now a top priority.’
The inquisitor made deliberate eye contact with each individual in the room before reaching a conclusion, ‘our foremost objective demands the utter eradication of this individual and every last vestige of Chaos cults under his sway. His profile shall be disseminated to all. Employ every tool at your disposal, exhaust every database, sift through every record. Locate him. Should any lead arise, communicate swiftly with me or my operatives. Any lapse in compliance with this directive, and those found wanting, will face my unequivocal personal condemnation as Excommunicate Traitoris.’
The room was silent after that and I heard people gulping. After a while it was Khatalina who broke the silence. ‘Aside from hunting these heretics, any update on the whereabouts of those mysterious Astartes on my planet?’
Thaberus shook his head. ‘Nothing. Either they had departed or remained utterly still following the last battle of the civil war. We believe only a very small number of them have been present.’
The meeting continued for another short while before Thaberus left hurriedly, chasing a new lead. The elites stayed and mingled for a little longer, if anything I believed the face to face meeting promoted a closer collaboration between the people at the pinnacle of power. I spoke with a few of them, and Khatalina took the chance to initiate some small talks with me. I had this odd sensation of being a senpai who was approached by an admiring kohai. Eventually everyone departed.
As the last of them was leaving, Magos Balpradus approached and canted in binary bips.
I responded with a nod. With binary we basically could converse privately in public. The magos continued,
Time to rush through my firearms training.
* * *
Blam! Blam!
The shots rang out as two auto pistol rounds landed dead centre on the target dummy in a vacated small firing range. For the second time in my life I was handling real firearms. While the sensation of weight and cold steel in my hand was fresh, the act of shooting itself felt natural. After firing the first few rounds and getting used to the recoil, I instinctively know where my shots would land.
With me was Alicya and Welminah, the palatine and the scholar were both wearing protective goggles and earmuffs. Until I stepped into the firing range a moment ago it did not even occur to me hearing protection was a thing, I was spoiled rotten with the convenience of being a transhuman. We barred Maylin from joining to conceal my capabilities, the disgruntled preacher almost pouted openly when she was informed of that decision.
Under the watchful gaze of both girls I fired my pistol down range and consistently landed hit after hit, always dead centre on my targets. Before finishing my first magazine I already felt like a crack shot with the weapon. While happy with the result, I immediately ran into a problem when I wanted to reload.
I turned to my instructor for help. ‘Alicya, how do I …?’
‘Oh, here. You do this to release the magazine…’ Alicya broke from being transfixed by my performance and started demonstrating with an identical weapon while talking about the standard safety procedure of reloading.
‘Thank you,’ I said while carefully releasing and reloading a fresh magazine before aiming to fire again. This time I aimed for the furthest targets on the range and let loose, switching dummies every two shots, practising my double tap.
Again I was consistently hitting all the targets, even the fast moving ones. Being a literal living super calculator with hyper precise body control made this ballistic exercise a walk in the park. I put more rounds down the range and soon realised that as shooting was the easy part for me, I should improve on my speed.
Speeding up, I started shooting rapidly and found no drop in my accuracy. I then worked on my reload speed. First, making sure my weapon was pointed in a safe direction, I ejected the spent magazine with the release button while grabbing a fresh magazine. After sliding the new magazine into my pistol, I racked the slide, felt a round chambered and let loose again with my shootings.
I did the sequence one more time to master the reloading sequence and ejected the last spent magazine with a flick, it just felt faster. When all was done, I had emptied four magazines with a full hit rate.
‘Can we move on to the next gun?’ I turned to ask and found both girls standing still, looking speechless with awe on their faces.
After graduating from pistol, I was finally allowed to handle the venerable bolter. As I put my hands on a genuine bolter, feeling its weight and the cold of its gun metal, a distant geek inside me was awakened.
I was holding a bolter, a real freaking bolter!
This was more than a weapon, this was THE WEAPON, the signature imperial weapon that had become legendary in status and was synonymous with the Space Marines and Sororitas.
The bolter in my hands was of the Godwyn-De’az pattern, decorated with a golden fleur-de-lys near its muzzle, a scaled down version from the ones used by Space Marines for standard human usage. Even so, due to my unfortunate stature this “scaled down” version of bolter still appeared comically massive in my hands.
My subtle giddiness must be showing as Alicya simply stood back and let me have my moment with the gun. As I closely inspected every inch of it, I could tell this was an ancient but excellently maintained piece of heirloom of the Sororitas.
‘Lady Syrine, it humbles me to see you venerate the weapon with such sincerity.’ Welminah said after an unknown amount of time had passed, bringing me back to reality.
‘Well, this is the divine instrument sanctioned by the Emperor to bring His wrath to the enemies of Mankind, right?’ I said in a lame attempt to cover my tracks. Unexpectedly both girls nodded approvingly on that statement, I might have accidentally earned more veneration points from them.
I then listened to Alicya’s quick lecture and observed her demonstration on basic bolter handling before finally got to do what every fan of the universe could only dream of - firing a real bolter.
With everything set, I double checked my pose before gingerly aligned the bolter’s ironsight to a dummy and lightly squeezed the trigger. There was a surge of anticipation, a primal instinct screaming as the mechanism unleashed a potent round with lethal efficiency. With a loud roar a bolt round exited the chamber, accompanied by a jolt of fierce but controlled recoil that reverberated through my entire body.
In that split second between firing and impact, time seems to slow with a rush of adrenaline and a surge of euphoria as the bolt streaks through the air with deadly precision. I felt a sense of triumph as the target dummy was struck and torn asunder by the fury of the Emperor’s wrath in the form of explosive force.
Eager to experience the awesome sensation again I fired two more shoots in quick succession, obliterating two more dummies. I sped up, obliterated three more targets in the next instance before deciding to switch things up a bit.
Changing my pose, I held the massive weapon out with only one hand to test if my physiology could handle the strain of using a bolter like a pistol. A heart beat later two more exploding dummies answered my question, I was still dead accurate firing a bolter with just one hand.
Ah… true grit, my old friend. Wait, can I do it left handed?
I switched the bolter to my supposedly less dominant left hand before firing again, and was rewarded with more splintering dummies. Judging by the result, I could probably go full dakka by shooting two bolters simultaneously like a dual pistol wielding gangster without losing accuracy, I was ambidextrous without realising it.
Speaking of being ambidextrous, it reminded me of the list of skills to pick up for the sake of increasing my survival odds in this world. A quick glance at the full arsenal on display informed me that the gun lessons would not last long at my current pace.
‘Alicya, I would like to expand the scope of my training.’ I said.
‘Of course, what would you like to learn?’ The palatine asked, looking curious.
‘Well, there are the handlings of vehicles, sword fight and… mastery of power armour and jump pack usage.’