**From the Ecclesiarchy Sealed Archives of Gwelyn's Stand. A controversial account of one of the Imperiums heroes, and Emperor's faithful.**
This being the final confession of Cannoness Lyria Suvan. Dated this day of 230.991.M40. In the presence of his holiness, Arch-Confessor Konstanse Lightbrey and witnessed by this humble hand, Airn Rhey.
I hear you chose to omit the title many in our order have begun to cry out for me. That is well. I do not seek such extravagancies- nor am I worthy of such a thing. I am the Emperors servant, nothing more.
In my years, I have served faithfully and am humbled the Emperor would shine his light on me to serve as long as I have. However, I feel it necessary to confess certain events of my life. Parts that, for various reasons, had been edited by history.
You might recall some two-hundred years ago on Adjutant's Grace, I willingly took the Oath of the Penitent after a valiant but ultimate defeat in battle. That is true, however the events surrounding that defeat were...artistically edited.
I was newly advanced to Superior at that time; my squad transferred to our Order of the Penitent Spirit's Mission there. It was two months after our transfer that Confessor Lightbrey discovered a festering wound of secular belief within a particular district. Forces of the Adeptus Arbites had gathered and violently squashed and apprehended the followers of this taint; however they had been overzealous in their duty- perhaps in attempt to show their fervour and save face in front of the Confessor for having not caught this obscenity earlier. Regardless, their actions along with the sects own violent response resulted in the destruction of one of our Emperor's temples.
Lightbrey forbade the Arbites from re-entering the area, shaming the Judge for this that travesty. He took it upon himself to search for and retrieve the artefacts the temple had contained and set about re-consecrating the ground. Along with two priests and bodyguards, Sister Farrier along with her squad and my own were chosen to accompany his eminence in this sacred task.
We arrived at the site around mid-morning; Sister Farrier and her squad had begun their search of the area while my squad readied in our transport to scout our quadrant. Sister Farrier's voice soon reported the discovery of an artefact. It did our hearts well to hear this good news; however it quickly turned sour as she voxed in only moments later with report of xeno sighting.
I rushed forward of our transport and saw as we rounded one of the few intact buildings, Eldar craft. I had faced these xenos in my early days as an initiate and no encounter with them was ever pleasant. They were so horrendously alien. Fast, lethal and cowardly. Striking unexpectedly from all angles and vanishing just as quickly. For some reason, they were there now.
Our transports moved to try to both protects the artefacts and engage the Eldar and the early moments of the battle was peppered with missile explosions around us and hits that did nothing more than deafen our ears as they detonated off the hull. Over the vox, I heard Sister Farrier order her squad out of their transport to secure one of the artefacts while her Rhino attempted to engage Eldar foot units in the rubble.
We resorted to field hand signals for communication; the rest of my squad was not fortunate to have helmets such as I and despite the com-beads in their ears, could not hear verbals commands over the missiles glancing off our hull. That didn't stop their prayers though. Even as I ordered Sister Katran on the squads Meltagun to bring an end to the xenos vehicle harassing our position; she dutifully took aim through the fireport, the prayer of guidance on her lips, she struck true, but she might as well have spat at the vehicle as the melta shot seemed to reflect harmlessly off its targets hull. Sister Farrier reported similar occurrences in her own squad...I hesitated.
The shot had been point blank, I had never even heard of such things happening, but somehow with some sick xenos trickery, the Eldar laughed at our weapons. Sister Farrier ordered a charge upon the vehicle on her position and I soon heard victorious cries in the background as the Eldar vehicle was destroyed.
Bolstered with this fact that these aliens were not indestructible, I ordered Sister Farrier to have at them again, joining her this time, lobbing a Krak grenade- such is how close we were to the Emperor's enemies. Amidst the crack of sniper fire and explosions, our efforts were shrugged off as they were before. I felt a righteous fire of hatred rise within me at our foe, but it turned to ice as I heard Sister Farriers death scream and the screams of her squad. Again, I hesitated, heartbroken at the deaths of my fellow sisters. My hesitation cost us.
Our transport rocked as sniper fire struck precisely, crunching the Rhino to a halt. I ordered my squad out of the death trap, straight into the sights of the waiting Eldar. We moved forward, prayers on our lips, defiant of our foe. I ordered a charge on the vehicle, inspired by Sister Farrier's valiance, but it jetted off before our grenades could strike a telling blow.
Everything next happened so fast; one moment Sister Kendra was standing beside me, and the next she had been rendered to ash, the heat wave of the Eldar weapon that had done this blistering my skin even beneath my battle armour. The next moment, I saw Confessor Lightbrey and the Priests charge into the Eldar squad's flanks, proclaiming the Emperor's might and fighting with a fervour I had seen in few at that point. The alien fell quickly to their blades and Lightbrey moved to cover us from an approaching squad of masked warriors that came from the direction of Sister Farriers ill fated squad...it was a task that I should have fulfilled.
He ordered us back, to recover the nearby artefact and get aboard his Rhino; but as I turned to look, I saw it crashed amongst rubble. More of my sisters fell beside me to sniper fire and when I went to look back at Lightbrey, he was already locked in a fierce combat with the Eldar, the men he had with him were cut down.
Our forces decimated, my faith in both my abilities and the Emperor's will for my position wavering, my fears of past encounters plaguing me; the Confessor locked in what I saw to be a doomed fight...I fled. Oh I can justify by saying that our losses were too great, our martyrdom would have availed nothing that day; all true. But the truth of the matter is I fled.
I returned and reported to the Prioress everything. Everything. My conscience assailing me, I wasted no time in offering myself for the Oath. The Prioress accepted- after a public flogging of course.
In hindsight; it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Our Mission returned to the battlefield but found no trace of the alien. All but one of the artefacts were recovered and our Sisters were laid to rest. There was no sign of Confessor Lightbrey. Sister Farrier and her squad were noted for their courage and unwavering faith under fire. To this day, I hold her as one of the bravest and worthy of the Emperors servants I have ever met.