My dear readers, it comes with a heavy heart that, I must inform you, that this is the last extract of the Cain Archives, and though there are many stories which remain untold, that chronologically happen before the events describe here, this is the final section of the Cain Archives, and I feel that the time for this particular tale to be released, to the public, or rather the other members of the inquisition, has arrived.
This, ladies and gentleman is Cain Last Adventure.
Amberley Vail; Ordo Xenos.
After the whole Perlia, debacle, which involved, that mustached midget Waran, I can honestly say, that I thought my adventures over, and my well deserved and hard earned retirement could continue unimpeded, by orks, elder, tau, necrons, ruinous powers, you know all those little things which seem to have the bad habit of trying to chop me up.
But despite the more than two centuries of wisdom and knowledge I've accumulated, telling me that the likelihood of that will not happened, I after a lifetime of lies and deceits managed the greatest feat any trickster could pull, and that I fooled myself into thinking so.
That misconception, would not last, since a few weeks after the whole Shadowlight-Necron-Waran jambalaya, and even bigger one appeared, in the form of what we call the 13th Black Crusade.
And I am sorry to say that things look grim, and coming from me, that says a lot.
But there was one small thing which I thanked his Divine Majesty everyday for, and namely my old age, or rather managing to reach it, and that it gave me the excuse of saying that I don't want to steal the glory from the younger ones, by charging head first, brains last into the toughest of the battles, like my undeserved reputation demands of me.
But with the Black Crusade turning the galaxy into ashes, I decided that I'd better get myself a commission into some safe positions, with no chance of me getting sent by some idiot bureaucrat or general who thinks I want to be at the field, where the main harvest is dead corpses and corrupted souls.
But to my apparent lack of fortune, my ill gotten reputation was by now was so great, that the position I desired was considered so beneath me, that the officials I went to get it, even refused to consider to say, it.
And so I sat there on Perlia, with Jurgen, passing the days in well hidden despair, since, from my long and inglorious career , I've deduced that the safest place in a war, or rather the safest you can be, is on a ships, where it's much easier to run, as I've so often done over the centuries.
My other reason for not wanting to stay on a planet is that I seem to have the bad habit of always landing of the planet where the fighting is most fierce, and most absurdly dangerous.
Refineries with necron tombs beneath the, cities built on dormant Tyranid hive ships, systems with the war for their defense over with space hulks suddenly popping into them, forge worlds who breed genestealers, and my personal favorite Perlia, who not only has orks, forces of chaos, and necrons but if you chose to play the bonus round, of what depraved monstrosity can appear here, you just might win Emperor knows what nightmarish invasion, or potentially galaxy spawning genocide artifact from this mudball as a prize!
So I think it's safe to say that me and planets are a no no!
"We're living dark days, wouldn't you agree Jurgen?"
"Not so much during, the summer on this planet" Jurgen phlegmatically replied, not getting the meaning of my question, as he was polishing his prized melta, which had served him faithfully all these decades.
But I've grown accustomed to my aides level of intelligence by then, so I didn't press the issue, merely changed it.
"Word has it that Abadon, set his sights on Cadia, and there's a battle going on over there."
"The Guard and the Navy will see him off, after all the Emperor protects" Jurgen replied, unfazed by the danger the leader of the Forces of Chaos posed.
"Let's hope so, I can't imagine what we would do, if he got past our forces" I asked.
Jurgen said nothing, only pulled out a pair of battery packs, one for my melta, and one for my chainsword.
"And if that's not enough?" I asked with a smile on my lips.
Jurgen merely shrugged and took out a second pair of battery packs from one of his many pouches.
At this I just laughed and shock my head, my inglorious career would almost seem to indicate that, a spare pack of power cells, along with me and Jurgen, was all it took to stops anything our enemies could throw at us, which I knew of course was an unemperorly absurd idea.*
*Like always Cain often views his own accomplishments as minor and without impact, forgetting the fact, that at this stage in his life, he is ranked by many with heroes like Commissar Yarick of Ibraham Gaunt, and on par with many other heroes of the Imperium, if not downright surpassing them.
Just then as I laughed at the absurd situation, the communication device in my ear, suddenly flared to life and a message from that someone at the star port wanted to see, me had come through.
The message also said that it was a priority zero class, communication, the highest security rank in the Empire, and despite knowing what these things often entail, I had no good excuse to avoid it and so I went to see whatever new inventive way of trying to turn me into human Swiss cheese, this mysterious someone could come up with.
As I reached the starport and boarded the unfamiliar docked ship, I was surprised to find Orelius, as the one who summoned me.
"Good day Commissar, you look well, especially after the Chaos invasion this world faced and you're vanquishing of it" Orelius told me, and I noticed that the room we where it was full up to the absurd with scented candles, and air conditioning running on overtime, in earnest preparation for Jurgen's presence, and I could not blame him, despite my becoming accustomed to the smell over the years, or at least enough so that I didn't have to run towards the nearest window for air every time I was with him.
"Just doing my duty as a soldier" I replied, that being the response a man of my unmerited reputation would use, but I must confess that after all these years of lying trough my teeth, and repeating that phrase, I had noticed that the words, despite coming reluctantly with hesitance and a very subtly hind of falseness in them which I like to think only I could perceive *, I had noticed that as time went by, the words came out smoother, more relaxed and with more naturalness in them, so much so that at this point I have to wonder, if the phrase I just said really is a lie.
*And Orks like to have tea parties, with Valhalans for fun!
"Of course, but I'm afraid I don't have time for pleasantries, I have a very urgent assignment and I require you're assistance" Orelius said and activated a map.
"I'll help if I can" which meant actually meant 'frak off and do it yourself', but there are few people who are as cunning a linguist as myself, so what are you gonna do?
"Our forces are preparing for a counterattack, to relive Cadia, of Abadon's siege"
"In order to do that, we require more firepower, but unfortunately we do not have the necessary means to supply our fleet for that, but this plan if successful could be the decisive factor" he said and after pressing a few icons, a holographic display of a mysterious device appeared before us.
"We will need every lass pistol power cell and boltershot we have to be sent to the fleet and guard there" I said and Orelius nodded in agreement, which was generally a bad sign and presented my his proposal.
"This is the horn of bounty, one of the last remaining relics created by the Emperor himself, before his death that still functions" he said as I made the sign of the Aquila at the mentioning of that great tragedy.
"The horn is a device which can covert massive amount of fecal matter into food, supplying the Guard and fleet with almost 60% of the Imperial ration bars" Orelius replied which made my eyes bug out, that contraception was the reason for the tortures taste of "Soylens Viridians" bars, I always made disparaging comments and comparisons, about their taste, but never thought I'd be so close to the actual truth.
"Sounds like a very essential machine" I said and that was the truth, I may not like those blasted things, but with so many raids by xenos forces on our territory, crops are sometimes hard, almost impossible to get to to the troops, so that machine was in my opinion the most holly of all the Emperor's divine creations.
"Quite so, and here is what we plan to do, since almost 80% of our forces ore on Cadia, we will move that machine there, to directly supply our troops with food, this will not only help us logistically, but will also increase our ability to supply our warriors with ammunition, weapons and fresh troops, by almost 80%" Orelius replied.
I let out a whistle of amazement, which was more genuine than false, the plan was bold, and could work, and knowing Orelius and looking back on my carrier I could guess what he wanted from me.
"But, you need someone to get it there, someone who is good with thought covert operations like this" I asked and Orelius confirmed my suspicions.
"You're time helping Lady Amberley, and you're military service, make you the prime candidate for this job, so I ask of your help with this mission" which in reality, when a servant of the inquisition said that in mean, 'do this or I'll have you shot', but I decided to not bring that up.
And honestly the prospect was not so bad, I generally knew, with things as they are I would be sent to that hellhole anyway, Black Crusades have a tendency to do that to you, and a few weeks sneaking around the Imperium instead of going directly to battle, was very appealing to my health, and don't forget I'm an old man by this point, so it's not that unreasonable of me to avoid battle.
"Alright Orelius, you have your mission commander, I bit boring for my tastes, but I'll do it" I said cheerfully" confident that I could avoid the front lines for a few weeks, but if I've known then what my odyssey would entail too, I would have taken the first ship to Cadia, and on my own charged the traitor Legions with nothing but a pencil and small trumpet.
A few days later, I boarded the craft, which carried the horn of bounty, there it's was an old seasoned admiral, a military veteran like me, who was also pulled out of retirement to command our little expedition, along with and regimental colonel to command the ships security detail who was also a veteran, both looked like they knew what they
"Ciaphas Cain, and this is my aide Gunner First class Jurgen " I said introducing myself, giving a salute.
"Admiral Horatio Bugler" His Divine Majesties, Imperial Navy.
"Colonel Richard Shrewd, Of the 950th south exe regiment"
They both said and saluted, and to my astoundment they did the same for Jurgen, shaking his hand, and apparently they where bothered by his smell, but where professional enough to not allow it to show it, I guess sometimes miracles do happen.
"You're reputation precedes you commissar" Horatio said to me.
"As does the reputation of the two if you" which meant that I did not know a damn about them, but the fact that they were here selected for a top covert mission, spoke volumes of it.
"Gentlemen shall we proceed then?" I asked.
"Of course, pilot, take us into orbit and to plot our course, baring 013, heading 228" Horatio said to the aforementioned pilot and after a few minutes, trough the atmosphere, which did not sit well with Jurgen we were on our way to the warp entry point.
"What's are course Admiral?" Richard asked him.
"Since this mission is of such high value, we will have to adopt the most erratic and unlikely route through the Imperium so as to not reveal our intentions to the enemies spies" he replied.
"Playing it safe is fine with me, what's our fist destination?" I asked with a false air of disappointment in my voice at the lack of combat, which was expected of me and seemed to convince my travel companions.
"Safest place in the current war commissar,
the Scarus Sector" Horatio replied with a smile, which myself and Richard replied with a smile as well , what's the worst that could happen there I thought, if I only knew just what a nightmare I'd have to go through, just to reach the damned 13th Black Crusade main force, which was another nightmare of equal proportions, I would have made a public confession of all my scoundrels secrets and lifetime of cowardly behavior and heroically avoiding battle and ould have taken my chances with the firing squad there and then.
""
Like the great storm of the Heresy, the forces of the True Gods will descend upon the False Emperor's minions. The stars will tremble at their passage, the mighty armadas of the Warmasters will bring annihilation to a hundred worlds. Great shall be the slaughter, most pleasing shall be the flow of blood. The fools who follow the Emperor will be brought low, forced to their knees amidst the corpses of their families and friends. The thrice-cursed one shall become as a living god, the power to destroy the Weakling Emperor shall be within his grasp. Know this, for these things will come to pass and the galaxy itself will be the spoils of victory"
Constanze the Prophetess, burned as a Heretic, 356.M38