Chris looked at the 28mm battlefield carefully, taking it all into detail. Warhammer 40k was a game of luck, strategy and detail. It was like chess, but more complex and can change in a second. The god's of dice can be fickle and needed to be appeased with the greatest of care. Looking at the table Chris was moving dice in his hand thinking about what to do next. His opponent was using Chaos marines with a backup of cultists with some forge world conversions and models. Chris however was using Space Marines of his own made chapter.

Nodding he took his razorback around a building so that it had good cover and a good shot at the Great unclean one his opponent had. He then moved his squad of snipers onto a building allowing for a good shot at the leader. The rest he had were in cover and good positions, he then moved on to shooting. First where the snipers, he blew onto the dice to praise the gods of dice before rolling them.

"Ahhhh nooo!" he said in a joking manor.

The gods did not allow for his gamble to pay off as the leader was still in play. His opponent just smiled as Chris took the dice for the razorback and rolled them, again the gods of dice where not favouring him today. The rest of his shooting phase only took out a few more infantry but that was it.

"Damn it." Chris moaned as he and opponent shook hands.

"Ahh don't worry about it. Maybe next time."

"Yeah." Chris said as he and his opponent packed their models.

He then looked at the models on the shelves seeing what he would need. Payday was coming soon so making a mental image of what he needed was a must.

"Seeing anything you like?" the shop employee asked.

"Making a shopping list, I mean since 8th is coming out soon and if rumours are to be believed then 1000 space marine chapters are gone. But I think I might get Guard, simply for the tanks and I would love to play with a Banebalde."

"Well rule of cool is a rule hard to break."

"Indeed." Chris said before looking at his watch. "Well good game, but I need to get gone. See ya later."

"See ya."

Chris exited the shop and pulled up his hood as light rain came down. The bus stop was near by so he headed there and waited for a bus. As the rain began to lighten up a lightning bolt hit the stop and in a flash of light and Chris was gone.

OOOOO

Inquisitor Selena looked over the cells of a stone building looking over the captured Eldar which included a Farseer who looked at the Inquisitor with a dark look. The Galaxy was in chaos so it was surprise that Humans and Eldar where at each other throats. But then again they did see each other in different lights, humans viewed the Eldar as arrogant, deceptive and evil while the Eldar viewed the Humans as primitive short sighted apes. While they did work together at times that didn't mean they didn't hate each other.

Selena was a 5,9 human with long black hair and a noble aura about her. She wore a black bodysuit with a metal armour corset and a carapace sleeve on the left side as well as thigh high carapace boots. A red and black coat hung on her shoulders showing where her allegiance was, the Emperor's holy Inquisition. At her left side was a blot pistol at the other was a cutlass power sword, each one had the Inquisitional I on both of the weapons.

She sighed as she walked along the metal catwalk that looked over the cells. As she walked a Scion Sargent walked up next to her and walked along with her.

"All traces of the other Eldar are gone, I have no idea where they could be." he said.

"Try to find a webway gate, interrogate them if you have to but don't kill them. For some reason I feel like we'll need them." she said.

"Yes Inquisitor." he said before turning away and walking off.

Selena then walked up a fight of stairs and into the light of a sun shining down on them. She looked around her and saw guardsmen dressed in uniforms similar to that of the Cadian regiments march around. She sighed and walked along towards the exit to the keep. As she did her vox bead came to life.

"Inquisitor." said the raspy mechanical voice of the Magos. "I have found something that you may have some interest in."

"I'm on my way." she said.

OOOOO

The Planet of Aukran was a techno feudal world at did have some technology but that was stagnated due to a war they has with machines. This planet didn't learn from the past about abominable intelligences, but they won and grew better for that. But when the Imperium came and brought some advance tech some of the people began a rebellion to remove all technology from their world. But that was humanity for you, always diverse and sometimes never agreed on things.

Magos Kalrus looked out at the city impressed with what they did. While he devoted his life to the Omnissiah he also had an understanding of human psychology. He was different compared to other Magos' in that he was interested in innovation. While others may have seen this as heretical he saw it as the best way for humanity to survive. The Inquisitor also saw this and allowed him to research things in secret in return for his help and small Skitarii force. He agreed and joined up with Selena's force.

The door to his workshop opened and Selena walked in.

"Inquisitor I believe I found something regarding the Webway gate." he said as he set down a book on his desk and opened it. "The gate of light, this mysterious object lays in the woods to the north. What mysteries does it hold?" he read before looking at the Inquisitor.

"Sounds like a webway gate to me, an active one at that. So the Eldar have been here before? Not much of a surprise, how are your rangers holding up?" she asked.

"More then ready."

"Good." she said before turning, "Be ready in 10."

Nodding Kalrus looked to his Mechanicus axe, he walked over and held it in his hand and looked at it like an old friend with a smile.

OOOOO

Three Inquisitional Valkyries flew to the north and landed in three different positions in separate clearings. The Magos and his Skitarii landed to the north east of the objective while a Astra militarum group landed to the northwest of the objective. While dressed like Cadian's they where not but from another feudal world with their Sargent being from one of the noble houses of the planet. The Inquisitor with her personal combat group landed south of the objective. Her team had a heavy weapons expert, a sniper, a cultural expert and a former Maccragge PDF soldier who was the daughter of an Ultramarine force commander. As such she was quite tall strong and faster then normal humans but less so then a Space Marine.

As her team got off the transport the sniper a felinid ab-human made her way up into the trees to get a good view of the area. Her tail helped her to move through the trees allowing her to become the predator that she was.

"Unyaa." she muttered as she looked around. "I cannot see anything."

"I suspected as much." Selena said. "Stay up there, we'll need support."

"Will do, unyaa." the felinid said before moving through the trees.

The Inquisitional squad then began to move up slowly through the forest in a circle. The PDF soldier was in the back with the cultural expert who welded a combat shotgun while the inquisitor and heavy weapons expert where up front. The movement was slow due to the Inquisitor's orders to ensure that if there are any Eldar left they would see these forces and move back to the webway gate and fall back. They needed to deny them the Farseer and gain control of the planet, at least not fully but enough to ensure that there would be no Eldar attack in the near future.

As they moved the movement's in the bushes told them that they where being watched but not attacked at the moment. The four looked at each other with a knowing look, the Eldar where crafty but not dumb and it seemed like they got the message but weather they would take it or not was another matter entirely. Lasfire made them stop and close formation as Selena clicked her vox bud.

"Stohlome what's that sound?" she asked.

"Some xenos soldiers decided to get the jump on us. We showed otherwise." he said.

'To be expected I suppose.' she thought. "Ok but do not pursue, the Webway gates is our primary objective."

"Understood."

"He's not going to listen." the PDF soldier said.

"Yeah, but he's too good not to keep around. Besides, if anything happens I'll but a round in his head." Selena said.

"Good, I'm getting sick of his advances." the cultural expert said.

"Same." muttered the weapons specialist.

OOOOO

The area around the webway gate was filled with flying bone, lasbolts and slug rounds. The guardian force that was protecting the webway while well trained was boxed in with the only means of escape though the webway. The fire from the Skitarii, guard and Inquisition made them keep their heads down, they maybe fast but at this range that would matter. Taking a chance they dived into the webway and the Imperial forces stopped firing. The ancient Eldar device then shut down, as it did Selena walked up to the militarium Sargent and slapped him across the face.

"I told you to hold position." she said in a clearly irritated voice.

"I saw a chance and took it." he countered. "Your plan was flawed!"

"You compromised the plan and made them attack before we were ready, you put all of us at risk and may have allowed them to escape. I should shoot you, be thankful that your still of use to me!" she said getting in close to him.

"Inquisitor." the magos said.

"WHAT?" she yelled at him before following his eyes to the webway gate.

The alien device sparked and cracked with a multicoloured lightning. All of the people in the area backed up a bit as they saw this, whatever it was it was not normal even if it was alien. Suddenly the device exploded showering wrathbone everywhere. The explosion was bright making all in the area cover their faces. Once it died down in place of the gate was a human male wearing clothing that would be considered to be normal on a few civilised words.

The Magos and Selena where the first ones walking up followed by Stolhome who kept his lasgun at the ready. Selena got down to one knee and turned the man on his back, he looked young, around her age when she first joined a few years ago. She then gave him a pat down, as she did she pulled out a black rectangular object from his pocket. She turned it over to see an emblem on it but she couldn't make it out. She looked up at the magos who was just as confused as she was while the cultural expert came up to have a look.

"He's cute." she said making all three look at her. "He seems to be a little too clean as well."

"Let's get him to the ship." Selena muttered.

"Why? He's clearly a heretic, he came from a xenos device." Stolhome said.

"So?" the Magos said. "There could be any number of reasons for that, escaped slave, lost in the webway the list goes on."

"Heretic or not, I want to question him. Call the hospitolers, tell them to have the med bay ready." Selena said.

OOOOO

The unknown young man was lay on a medical bed with his chest bare. It was slightly muscular, not too muscular but enough to hold his own. The chief hospitoler began her examination of the young man slowly. She needed to check for everything, in case of unstable mutations or something more sinister. Years of experience moulded her into a hospitoler who never left any stone unturned, she knew that to do so would spell disaster.

Taking many chemicals and blood form the young man her examination began.

OOOOO

The Aukranian Assembly was the main governing body of the planet. The assembly was made up of members from the noble families each had a different speciality while the Planetary Lord ruled over the nobles. The nobles where formed to represent the different area's of specialities that the planet provided, trade, military, agriculture and industry. But agriculture and industry where low due to the fact that they mostly operated on the planet. But military and trade where mostly on topic due to the rebels and trade with other worlds.

They called Selena in to talk about the rebels. Under orders by a higher Inquisitor, who was looking into something else, ordered her to attend the assembly when called to make sure that she could make sure that she looked for clues for a cult which she was looking for. To quell a rebellion was only part of the reason why she was there, the other was to find and destroy the cult.

The assembly room was set up with 4x4 sloped seats on both sides with the planetary lord in the middle with an aquila on the stand he was behind. Selena was sat behind a desk that was set in a semi-circle in case there where more people to sit there. In a sense it was set up like a adeptus arbities court room, which was probably the point. Make the person feel like they are on trial to get more out of them and remind them of their place in society.

"When are you going to execute those xenos prisoners?" one of the nobles asked.

"I am not, they were here for a reason, I wish to find out what that reason is." she defended. "In my line of work, you don't kill your intelligence."

The noble looked at her with a hint of disdain in his face.

"Like it or not this is how I operate, how I work. I don't care how you do things, this is my investigation and I will do it may way until another Inquisitor takes it from me."

The fat Planetary Lord just looked at her stroking his goatee. She could feel his gaze upon her that made her shiver, she could sense that he wanted her, for less then noble reasons. Having a blessed body made the opposite sex attracted to her. At times she liked it at others it made her feel sick, both literately and metaphorically. She forced those feeling down as she waited for the next bureaucratic crap she had to deal with.

OOOOO

The Magos was doing bit of reading of the planet's history. It wasn't a requirement but more of an interest in order to find artefacts that would be of interest to the Mechanicus. While he was part of the cult he had some heretical and blasphemous thoughts about the Mechanicus that would get him killed. So he kept it quiet, but the actions of the Mechanius only reinforced those thoughts. Just then the door opened and the hospitoler walked in with her findings.

"Magos." she said getting his attention. "How good is your biology?"

"Good enough why?" he asked setting his book to the side.

"Take a look at this." she said handing him a datapad.

The Magos stood and took the pad and looked at it. Reading it his robotic red eye blinked as did his real eye. The hospitoler could see that he was also confused, his face said it all.

"This…." he said looking at her. "Tell me you checked this."

The hospitoler nodded. "At least 10 times with fresh samples. All with the same result."

"But if that's the case..."

"The young man we have is the second oldest human alive."

The Magos looked up at a Mechanicus banner on the wall then to the window. Looking at the pad he then set it down on his desk and looked to the hospitoler.

"Keep an eye on him, I'm going to have a chat to the xenos." he said as they both walked out.

OOOOO

Farseer Telshae just sat in her cell with metal cuffs that blocked her psychic powers. She had to give credit where credit was due, humans where creative for primitive ungraceful apes. But given this age of war, it was of little surprise to her that these cuffs existed but to her it meant that they where denying their evolution from a weak race to a more powerful one. But she could see the reason why as well, Chaos was insidious and could infect human psykers with ease. It made her think back before the time of she who thirsts awakening.

It was complicated that an Eldar like her didn't always think about. The sounds of metal on metal met her ears, she tuned to see in front of her cell was a red caped human who's body was mostly made out of primitive machinery. With cog and red cape where clear indicators that he was from the machine cult that some humans were apart of. Inwardly she resisted the need to laugh but she did let a light snigger lose which the human seemed to not hear or ignore.

"I have a question for you." he said as he turned to look at her. "Your webway, does it interact with the warp?"

She looked at him before looking at a corner in her wall. "Why?"

"We found a young man who came from you tech, his chemical analysis shows that he's older then others of our race."

She looked at him again, she didn't sense any deception but she didn't quite believe him.

"What you say is impossible. It cannot happen!" she said out loud before turning way in a realisation. "Unless something more powerful is involved."

"I thought so." he said as he exited the cell and locked it again. "I can tell by that face, I my not be a psyker but even I can see what you are thinking. And I agree, let's hope it's not them."

She looked at him as he walked off. As the Magos walked outside Selena who was resting on the archway to the cells for him. He didn't look at her as he stood there next to her.

"Ok spill, what did you talk to her about?" she asked.

He looked to her with a smile then turned to look at the sun. "The young man we have. The hospitoler found something interesting, I just went to confirm her findings."

"And what did she find?" Selena asked.

"Our guest, is from the 3rd millennium."