Righteous Fury
Chapter 1: A Dark Beginning.
"My people will not succumb to your tricks you filthy witch." the foreman said. Grim smiled. These people were nothing if not unoriginal. Grim turned to face the tied and beaten up foreman. His face was bloody and bruised and things weren't looking up for him. "Fuse, the detonator if you would be so kind." The bulky man checked out his electronic panel one last time and passed a device to the crow haired man. Grim pushed the button and the countdown began. "Well mister Grish,in about 5 seconds you're either going to be very right, or very very wrong." Grim turned to face the massive mountain. It's many entrances were filled with tracks and people but this was nothing compared to was going on inside. Tens of thousands- if not hundreds- were laboring away inside the maze that were the Adamantium mines, digging for the precious ore, loading the ore into carts,dragging it out and then repeating the process. Grim imagined the workers found some sort of comfort in their mundane affairs, maybe even happiness. A series of explosions rocked the mountain as most of the mine shafts collapsed either trapping or killing those busy, busy ants. Happiness is a delusion of the weak he had once heard somebody saying.
"Emperor help us." the foreman whispered as he watched the death of most of his friends, neighbors and family. Grim turned to face him once again tossing the detonator in the ground. His black coat flapped in the wind, his green eyes starred daggers straight to the face of his prisoner. Grim walked towards him as the helpless sob's eyes widened looking under his armpit. Grim smiled again touching the smooth metal asking "You're looking at this? Yeah, trust me, I know how you feel." Grim reached for his bolt pistol, but at that exact moment a knife stabbed mister Grish behind his ear, ending his life abruptly. "What did you do that for?" he barked at the leather clad woman. "We have a meeting to attend to and I sensed that you were going to play with your food." Grim frowned and replied "You know what Widow, for a former hired assassin you really take out the fun from the whole killing business.". She simply withdrew her knife, cleaned it, shoved it back into it's sheath and started walking towards the gun cutter. Grim nodded at Fuse who had already packed up his stuff and they both went on their merry way.
Inside the cutter the rest of Grim's crew was waiting. Bunny was cleaning his autogun, Ezekiel was meditating and Shebin was nagging about Ezekiel. Again. For the 6th time this week. "You know boss, I'm starting to believe that your boy-wonder here really does that shit on purpose. This is the third stolen cutter from which I have to clean somebody's guts,bones and skin off the floor and roof." Grim sighed and wondered for the 5th time this week why did he choose to have a perfectionist,butt-shit crazy serial-killer with him on this whole thing. But in truth the question answered itself. Who else but an insane self-righteous murderer would follow him on this trip? And to be fair Shebin was a great pilot,not to mention an expert with his weird knives and an excellent torturer. Need a man to torture the location of a munitions warehouse out of an Arbiter? Look no further. Another weird-almost-advantage Shebin brought to the table was that he could turn from a complete maniacal murderer to a dandy master seductionist within the blink of an eye. For him it was a mostly disgusting experience but some of his targets seemed to like him. Before he took their scalps as decorative for his chambers at least.
His gaze shifted back to Ezekiel. A fourteen year old psyker he had picked up while he butchered his was through the Periphery Sub-Sector. For obvious reasons the boy hadn't been picked up by the Black Ships and Grim-a psyker himself-saw a grand opportunity in taking the boy in. And he didn't disappoint. The kid had helped charm his way to more than a dozen apocalyptic level strikes by now. Including helping him, help a cult summon a daemonhost who ravaged it's way through a planet of Karacallia system. In fact, Ezekiel was the one who mind-controlled the workers which set up the explosives that brought down the Adamantium mine. Grim managed to not punch the lunatic killer in the throat but just barely and replied "Shebin, take us out of here. I don't like keeping the Dark Mechanicum waiting. They get nervous and when they get nervous people get fried. Bunny will clean up the mess." Bunny groaned at this but stood up as the professional he was. Bunny ironically was the best soldier his little squad had. He has seen him beat hopeless recruits into such a shape that they in turn beat other hopeless recruits into it. His most impressive feat however was leading several thousand blood-crazed Khornate cultists into an amazingly organized raid. Well amazingly organized for Khornate cultists that is. They mostly kept to the slaughtering into the PDF base that was their target, spilling over into the surrounding only a couple of times. A certain planet in the Lukius system never really recovered from that.
Then it was that nasty . Nobody knew her real name, Grim knew she had once been a member of some Death Cult or another but since she had turned assassin for hire,then retired,then joined him. She was the best sharpshooter Grim had ever worked with and Grim was in the killing business for more than twenty five standard Terran years. He once watched her cleave a Rogue Traders head off his shoulders from 38 miles away, all the while he was haggling with some Planetary Governor for some Promethium. Her attitude was shit though. Grim sat down as the cutter took off and sped right away towards their next destination. Some old ruins on the other side of the continent. The Dark Mechanicus really had a flare for the dramatic when it came to their dealings. Grim's precious cargo hanged from the cutters cargo net wiggling dangerously but he didn't really care. Fuse sat across him, checking his parapace armor and plasma gun. Now Fuse,Fuse was undoubtedly the weirdest member of the team. He was mute for all he knew, he was a former Guardsman and he was their demolitions expert. That was pretty much all the intel Grim had on him. In a quite strange string of coincidences three Adeptus Administratum and seven Departmento Munitorum facilities,all of which contained information on him, had all been blown to bits and pieces over the past fifteen years. However, everyone couldn't help but be impressed at how he handled a certain mutant uprising back in the bowels of Thrax. Handled meaning creating in this case. Turns out nothing gets an underhive flustered like tons of molten metal raining down from the Hive. Courtesy of a very creative set of melta-bombs installed in key points of infrastructure. Boy, the local troops and Arbiters were stuck dealing with a full-blown revolution for nearly two years. Half of Thrax must have been left in ruins between the twists,the Greenskin raiding parties and Grim's teams' several surprises,including- but not being limited to: eighteen forest wildfires,a Nurglite cult spawning half a dozen Plaguebearers, several hundred suicide bombings and a particularly nasty accident involving the planet's orbital defense platform collapsing unto the planet's surface.
They had been traveling for several hours now and were closing in their destination so Grim told everyone to start getting ready and ready they got. Bunny had his autogun at hand and along with Fuse they were working on getting the metal box down from the cargo net. Bunny commented on it being unusually heavy with his usual nonchalant way "What the frag is in that fragging box anyway?" Grim sighed and answered "It's not a box you uncultured swine,it's a chest." "What's the difference between a chest and a box?" Bunny shot back. " A box is where you stuff an ammo pack or a ration kit. A chest is where you store an ancient Chaos artifact which will be traded for an incredible weapon with the Dark Mechanicus you grox." Ezekiel tried to jump in the conversation looking really confused but was cut off with a nod from Widow. They were being monitored. As the box was put down the cutter started descending and soon they had stopped. The hangar dropped and his team of armed maniacs slowly walked,exiting the cutter and meeting the other half of the upcoming slaughterhouse that was to be their meeting.
Now,as far as Chaos is concerned Grim had met some weird people. Musclehead Khornate berserkers with more scars than normal skin, Nurgle's followers disgusting to look at- much less be close to,Slaneeshi cultists best left undescribed but few did he find as disturbing as the Hereteks. More machine than men, ten of them stood before him. Some had tentacles protruding from their backs, others stood on tracks or spider like metal feet and most of their faces had been replaced by some silly looking metal masks. Grim collected himself and said "We will be seeing the weapons first,otherwise the meeting ends here." His proposition was met with silence. Then one of metal monstrosities who stood about 8 feet long and held a more than normally dangerous looking, glowing halberd spoke up "We'll see the artifact first or you all die." Grim smiled at that and nodded towards Bunny who stood behind him. Bunny pulled his autogun and aimed the barrel towards the metal chest containing their end of the bargain. The hooded men hissed but none of them dared move. One of them started screeching in binary towards their leader,Grim patiently waited for him to stop speaking and said "Of course it's electronic and Warp related you dumb piece of scrap. You don't really need your sensors to tell you that. What would we be giving you? A rocking chair to put on your fragging lawn?" The arch-priest looked dumbfounded that he could understand binary. Well, as dumbfounded as a creature closer resembling a toaster than a man could look. So,not that much. "This looks like an Urdesh Minor U90 Pattern. Where did you get that from?" the leader asked Bunny. Bunny frowning more than usual replied "Where do you think?". Silence again. Grim could feel their odds of survival dropping with each passing moment. Suddenly the leader moved one of his seven metal arms and one of the priests brought forth a chest of their own. The leader waved at them to come close. And they did. All but Bunny, who held his Hell Forge-made autogun's barrel stuck in their own chest. As they approached the priest opened up the enough there it was. Well, there they were to be accurate.
A couple dozen metal scarabs glowing with a sickly green light,surrounded by an electric fence of some kind with a contraption locking it down,effectively and fortunately keeping the murdering mechanical bugs trapped. "Canoptek Scarabs." the leader said "Necrons mostly use them to heal themselves and their ships mid battle but that's not all they can do. Unleashed upon anything they eat,melt down whatever they consumed into energy and create more Scarabs. If let loose for long enough they can consume entire planets." Grim nodded and waved to Bunny to come look "You may check out our end of the deal now if you like." And so they did. The greedy metal bastards practically flocked around the chest their metal tentacles and proboscis touching it,smelling it,looking out for anything fishy. They didn't find anything. So they opened the chest. Three Plaguebearer heads stared back at them,covered in anything was going to cover the smell of 20 pounds of plastic explosives,rotting Plaguebearer heads would be it. It probably took the Hereteks a couple of seconds to register exactly what they were looking at. That was when the timer was set up to go. And it went. It went big. A massive fireball rose from the chest engulfing the seven Hereteks around it. Grim knew the explosion was coming,hell,he had planned on it but knowing that the explosion is coming and being ready for it are two very different things. The blast wave send him and his team,the box of murderous bugs as well as the rest of the Hereteks flying in different directions. Thankfully the box and the fence in it didn't break.
Grim on the other hand wasn't so lucky. He was sent straight to a stone pillar and felt his ribs breaking on impact. However,he managed to stand up. As far as explosions go it wasn't the worst that had ever clipped him. It certainly wasn't the best though either. Fazed he drew his bolt pistol and aimed at one of the Hereteks, half his artificial limbs must have been broken as he fell on a rock a couple of feet away from him. Three times Grim shot him. It says a lot about Grim's crash on the pillar that he somehow missed all of them. One of the priest's tentacles rose and aimed straight at his head, some kind of green glow emanating from it. "Die you meatb-" was all he managed to say before a plasma shot blew his top half in a glorious show of blue fire. One of the other Hereteks was still lying down with Widow on top of him laying shot after shot with her las carbine straight through his head. The head priest though was a different story. Bunny must've let out a full magazine on the metal bastard but somehow he was still standing,pretty much unfazed and definitely unimpressed. Bunny was a good man. Being cut in half with both halves burnt to a crisp definitely wasn't a good way to go for such a good man. But that's life for you. Unfair. The head priest turned towards them his various tentacles and limbs all spewing thunder bolts and beams of green energy towards them. Everyone dropped,including Grim, in fact he dropped on his broken ribs all the while cursing. The beam passed where his chest was a moment ago,cutting the pillar in half and letting it slowly descend on him. Now Grim thought falling on his ribs was painful,he changed his mind as soon as he was forced to barrel roll on them to avoid being crushed. The sole surviving enemy was still standing firing away at every direction,screaming in binary.
That was when Ezekiel stood up. The kid slapped his hands together and with a scream of his own let out a white-hot beam of fire flying straight to the back of the monstrous fragger. People thinking they've heard noises that make their skin curl have obviously never heard a Heretek slowly melting away by psyker-fire. Fun times. Within mere moments the robotic bastard had been reduced to a small lake of molten metal burning through the ancient temple's floor. And then Ezekiel collapsed. The team standing up limped towards him. A massive piece of metal was protruding from his back. Apparently blowing tech-priests up tends to create some dangerous snarpel. Widow checked for a pulse. "Dead" she announced. Shibet opened his mouth to make some witty remark. He was cut off by Fuse's fist being shoved at his throat. Coughing and wheezing he fell at the floor. Fuse grabbed his Plasma gun and aimed it at the kid. Both Grim and Widow stepped back as he fired at the kid's dead body burning it down. As proper a funeral as any of them would get. Fuse then went and grabbed the Dark Mechanicus chest containing the Scarab, he stopped to salute the charring spot that Bunny had turned into and started walking towards the cutter. Widow grabbed Shebit,Grim grabbed his ribs and they all left.
Aynov was one of the most densely populated planets in the entirety of Periphery Sub-Sector. It was also one of the planets on which Cold Trade thrived. Many hateful words can be said about Finley Domene and the fact he's a criminal and perverse is but the tip of the iceberg. Let alone the fact that he's also opportunistic and childish. But he and Grim had a deal. The untrustworthy Rogue Trader and Grim met inside one of the worst bars Grim and his crew had ever visited. They sat down and the Trader's drunkard of a right hand man offered them a half-empty bottle of amasec. Grim was the first one to talk "So, Master Domene, I trust we are ready to depart?". The criminal grabbed his Seneschal's bottle and drank a sip before replying " I'm afraid we'll have to wait for another week Inquisitor. See after your bitch killed my father I had to kill his own Seneschal in order to take control of the ship. My new Seneschal is somewhat...Inexperienced." Inquisitor Grim and his retinue watched as the fancy dressed fellow sitting next to Domene started running towards the door,throwing up on himself all the while. Grim stared at Fuse who proceeded to punch Domene square in the nose throwing him off his chair in the process. He immediately grabbed him and put him back on his seat. "First of all,I've already told you,you little creep, not to speak my title in public. Next time you'll do something that stupid,the bitch that killed your father will plant a slug in the back of your head. Secondly, we cannot wait another week. Come nightfall a terrible disaster will befall this Hive World,trust me when I say that you don't want to be anywhere near this place when it happens. Am I clear?"
Domene just stared blankly at him. Grim sighed and looked at Fuse again. Fuse grabbed the bottle of amasec and smashed it over the Rogue Trader's head. Thankfully,Master Finley Domene was also a coward as well as an untrustworthy, plotting little piece of grox crap. And so after a couple of hours Inquisitor Tullius Grim of the Ordo Hereticus and his retinue had boarded a shuttle and were gliding towards the atmosphere where The Emerald Flame waited. "Care to explain why we're leaving already m'Lord?" asked Shibet for what seemed like the 8th time this week. Surprisingly it was Widow that answered "Because apparently other Inquisitors don't appreciate Chaos cults being used to combat Heretics and the boss is afraid that his colleagues' paranoia is gonna have them looking into the cult activity in the Severan Dominate." and it was Grim that completed this little explanation "And if they find out what we've been doing we will be deemed Heretics and Extremis Diabolus. Which will bring any Daemon Hunter of the Calixis Sector on ours asses.". Shibet looked like he finally somehow, Grim really doubted that. "So what do we do now?" Shibet asked. Grim looked at his watch. It must've already started, he thought, the Scarabs would be scouring the sewers now. Eating mutated rats, homeless people and whatever else lived down there. Then they would climb up the Hive and the real fun would start. "We've done enough for now. I doubt the Dominate will ever be able to recover from what we've been doing to them for the past nine years, it's up to the Lord Generals now to mop up. So for now,we lay low." And with that he touched once again the smooth metal of his Inquisitorial Rosette and smiled. There was so much more work to be done.