Chapter I: Exordium offero terminus
Inquisitor Aracio stood quietly before the holograms of the planet rotating before him, occasionally tracing a long finger along a mountain range or crater and muttering to himself. The room was silent save for the thrum of keystrokes from the servitor standing behind him, recording his every motion on the inexhaustible roll of scrolls stored within his metal chassis.
Aracio was used to his new shadow by now. It was assigned to him after "repeated use of questionable methods to achieve objectives," and now followed him everywhere he went, empty eyes staring blankly ahead. To say Aracio enjoyed the attention would be a misinterpretation, but after the last incident involving the death of billions on a hive world the Inquisition had been keeping a closer eye on him. Aracio didn't mind, he grew up dodging bureaucracy's red tape to meet the goals set before him; the only difference now was that he could very well lose his life along with his position.
It never fazed him. He'd already given his life to the Imperium, to mankind – it no longer belonged to him. The day he stopped working for the good of the imperium was the day it discarded him as a tool.
He let out a sigh and brought a hand to his temple, running a finger along the rim of his hood and staring through the green projections without really seeing them, contemplating the task before him. He chanced a glance behind him, eyeing the pasty flesh visible between the gaps of the servitor's machinery with distaste and earning the parchment a frantic spasm of keystrokes. He turned away and gritted his teeth. It would be nearly a decade before he could sleep without the thing standing beside him, lidless eyes watching balefully.
Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door before it slid open to reveal a giant of a man, foot-thick armour adding surprisingly little to his bulk. He stood almost two feet taller than the Aracio but bowed his head, to the extent the neck of his armour would allow, as he entered.
"I trust the astartes are ready for battle." Aracio greeted, returning the nod and facing the holograms again.
The man stared at him, unsure if that was meant to be a joke of some kind, before nodding again. "The adeptus astartes are at the disposal of the inquisition." He stated, watching the inquisitor.
Aracio again found himself staring through the same spot on the map. 'Aren't we all...'
The man noticed the spot on the map. "Is that the location?" He asked, tapping the panels in front of them and enlarging the projection.
"Yes," Aracio said simply, "that site is our objective."
The space marine pulled out to a broader view of the surrounding area, tapping on several locations where the land abruptly jutted out from the landscape. "Is that where the xenos–?"
He was interrupted as the door slid open again and several more power-armored giants moved into the room, followed by an imperial officer.
"I trust this debriefing will tell me something the file couldn't?" the flustered man asked, looking very small beside the other space marines. "I have evacuations to oversee, lives to save..."
"What we do or don't save will be irrelevant if I fail." Aracio said, gesturing for the others to sit around the circular table in the center of the dim room. When they did so, he continued, "As you all know, the Tyranid have besieged the planet. In a matter of days, it will be lost; that much is inevitable."
He let this sink in, noticing a few of the marines moving restlessly in their seats.
"However this planet is also the site of a powerful chaos artifact." He added, prodding the spot on the map before him and circling the site where it was located.
"Why was this not destroyed when found?" The officer spoke up, frowning at the inquisitor. It was plain this man had little experience in dealing with the inquisition and had only attended due to protocol.
"Because we've yet to find a way to damage the structure; it is impervious to every method we've employed against it." Aracio answered, zooming in so to make visible the damage to the area around the shrine, yet not a stone out of place on it.
"Why does this matter?" A marine asked, voice mechanized through his helmet.
"The shrine is reacting. To this," Aracio said, dragging the view of the map to a nearby area. It was a Tyranid digestion pool, great ponds of thick green acid bubbling. "As the Tyranid swarms deposit their… 'cargo' into the pool, the released souls are passing through the shrine. I don't know how much longer before it becomes an active gateway for the warp itself."
"If we destroyed the digestion pool…?" Another marine asked, trailing away and waiting for Aracio to finish.
"It would prove a temporary solution. Sooner or later the Tyranid will take the area again, and when they do the death of everything around it will be more than enough to activate the shrine." Aracio said, making a swiping motion in the air and causing the green planet to dissipate, making the room very dark.
"Could we use that to our advantage? Unleash our foe upon another?" The officer suggested, looking around to see what made the room so deathly silent. His eyes eventually fell on the inquisitor.
Aracio's face was hidden by his hood, but his mouth was visible as he spoke. "What you speak is heresy, Officer Collins." He hissed, stepping behind the circle of chairs and moving behind the man's. "Only a fool or a heretic willingly opens the gates to oblivion; 'the difference between heresy and treachery is ignorance'…" He stopped behind the officer's chair, resting a hand on his shoulder as his other dipped down to draw the laspistol from the sitting man's belt. "Tell me Collins, are you ignorant?"
"Y-Yes." The man named Collins answered, sitting rigidly in his chair as his own laspistol rested on his shoulder, knowing full well the consequences of the alternative answer.
Aracio leaned over to whisper into his ear, "Then I will make this clearer for you. If I even hear whispers of corruption within any platoon you've ever commanded, I will ensure you are thrown into the Eye of Terror, personally." He let the weapon drop down into the owner's lap. "Are we understood?"
Collins nodded and closed his eyes, knowing from stories that he'd just come off very, very easy.
"I have examined this mission from every possible viewpoint, do not waste my time making more suggestions or asking questions. The object of chaos cannot be destroyed, moved, or ignored. It must be deactivated before it reaches the threshold of souls." Aracio spoke aloud to the room. "And the longer we stand idle the stronger the Tyranid forces grow on the planet."
"We pull our forces from planet defense to secure the grounds for you, you're able to disable it?" The first marine who entered asked.
"With some help, yes, that is my intention." Aracio stated.
"And I trust you've come without any support, relying on others to supply your needs?" The last marine spoke in a deep voice, eyeing the inquisitor sternly.
For the first time in a long time, Aracio smiled. "Inquisitors always have support." He turned back to the control panels and began typing. "Mission begins when we reach Ktar V, dismissed."
Floating in empty space half a light-year away a sleeper pod suddenly changed direction to make towards a nearby planet.
Inside the machinery chirped to life as the data streams began to feed information through the wires leading into a skull-shaped helmet.
