Officio Sabtorum

(NOTE, I claim no ownership of any 40K references included here.)

This is rated M

Corporal Knowles crawled slowly across the shell-cratered no-mans land between the Imperial lines and the rebel fortifications. He had been crawling for over an hour, his sniper-pattern las-gun digging painfully into his back. A flare suddenly lit up the night sky and Knowles froze, praying to the Emperor that some keen eyed rebel didn't see him. The flare fell slowly across the night sky, casting strange shadows that confused Knowles's night vision. When the light from the flare disappeared, Knowles resumed his slow, steady journey to assassinate Lord General Uldesh, known as the Butcher. Lord General Uldesh had, when the planet had succeeded from the Emperors light, executed some twenty-thousand guardsmen who had been garrisoned on the planet and burned alive the one-thousand Ministorum priests who had spoken out against the Lord Generals succession from the Imerpium.

Knowles was a member of the Officio Sabtorum, a branch of the Imperial Guard that specialized in assassinations and sabotage. Imperial Guardsmen, who proved their skills in these fields, as well as other fields, are recruited into its ranks and put through an extensive two year training regime. Those who survive the training are some of the coldest killers in the galaxy and can sneak into just about any where, to do just about anything. However, like with every branch of the Imperial life, the Inquisition is especially watchful of the Officio Sabtorum, for, during some of their missions, they may come across banned and heretical books. Those agents that come across these books are often mind-wiped and re-trained and many veteran agents have scars and experience they do no remember gaining.

The rebel bunker system loomed suddenly in front of Knowles. Quiet as you like, he pulled a silenced auto-pistol and a soot-blackened knife from his belt and rose to a crouch. Still walking slowly a possible, Knowles shuffled towards the nearest bunker and stopped, melding into the shadows as a sentry walked past him. Without hesitation, Knowles wrapped his pistol arm around the sentry's neck and stabbed him between his second and third ribs. Without a sound, the sentry collapsed and Knowles dragged the body into a corner. He paused to whip his knife clean and continued on, sliding with his back to the bunker, until he reached the power-plant at the rear. He took a remote-detonated melta-bomb from his pack and attached it to the main power cable. It always paid to have a distraction ready when necessary.

Knowles continued past the rebel bunker and dropped silent as sin into, what he thought was a communications trench and began to follow it. He hadn't gone five meters when a rebel trooper came pounding done the trench towards him. The trooper had a confused look on his face until Knowles fired a single bullet into the trooper's forehead. Knowles stopped and searched the rebel's pockets until he found a mass of folded parchment. Knowles leaned over the body and flicked on his lighter. It was a warning about possible infiltration by members of the "enemy" (they were probably referring to the Imperials, thought Knowles) to assassinate General Uldesh during his visit to the rear area to boost morale. That's almost too convenient, thought Knowles; the bloody rebels must know I'm coming, best be extra careful then.

The communications trench ran straight back for five kilometers, branching off into side corridors which Knowles booby-trapped with frag grenades and trip wire. Then, the trench stopped dead at the door to a bunker. He couldn't risk looking over the sides of the trench for fear of being spotted by rebels. So, Knowles placed a small, krak charge on the door lock and ducked behind a mass of wiring and set off the charge. With an almighty clang, the bunker door blew in. Knowles sprinted in, and stabbed a reeling guard in the stomach. Another raised an auto-rifle and Knowles put a bullet in his head. To his left, a rebel was frantically speaking into a headset and Knowles put a round into his head and two into the radio. Hopefully, no one had heard the guard's frantic call for help. Knowles stalked silently through the bunker picking off rebels one by one as they scrambled out of their bunks. Finally, five minutes after entering the bunker, Knowles found the front door and steeled himself before opening it. He glanced at the chronometer on his belt and the luminescent dials read One a.m. That was good. He had several hours to find a good sniping position before the Generals arrival. Breathing deeply, Knowles pulled his las-gun off his back for the first time on the mission and wiped the grim of his custom scope. He slowly opened the door and scanned the perimeter. A rebel had his back to the door, silhouetted against moon. Quickly, he raised his rifle and fired. The silenced rifle made a zipp sound and the rebel fell forward with a thud. Cursing, Knowles grabbed the rebel's feet and dragged him inside the bunker and dumped him in a corner.

Knowles opened the door a little more and slid out, keeping his back against the bunker. A series of gigantic flashes blinded him and he dropped to his belly and crawled behind a stack of barrels. Seconds later, when his night vision came back, he cautiously looked over the barrels and was stunned by what he saw. A battery of five rebel Earthshakers were dug in behind the slope of a hill, their crew scurrying around them, frantically reloading. Knowles ducked back behind the barrels again and clamped his eyes shut just as the guns fired again. He had to knock out those guns, but he didn't have enough melta-bombs left to destroy them all Maybe if he hit the magazine, he could get all the guns and kill a good deal of rebels. That was his plan then.

Slowly, Knowles stood up and watched some rebels run into a camouflaged bunker, half buried into the hill, and come some seconds later, carrying shells. Guess that was the magazine. Spying steam rising from a ventilation grill, Knowles bolted between the shell-fire and dived down beside it. Quickly, he pulled a pair of bolt cutters from his belt, and cut open the grill. The steam rising from it blinded Knowles, and cursing, he put on his Armageddon-pattern gasmask. He then pulled a thin climbing rope from his pack and staked it to the ground next to the grill. Then, with a silent prayer to the Emperor, he swung himself down and climbed down the shaft into the darkness.

After some five minutes of climbing, during which Knowles thought he must have gone only about twenty meters down, the shaft abruptly ended above a large pot. Cursing his luck for finding a kitchen, Knowles wedged himself in the shaft by sticking his knees on one side and his back on the other; Knowles pulled the pin on a frag grenade and dropped into the room. Loud and blasphemous cursing erupted just before the grenade exploded. Then, there was silence. Quickly, Knowles swung himself into the room and dropped down beside the stew pot. All around him, rebel bodies lay dismembered, with the fragments of bowls scattered everywhere. No one was left alive. Heart pounding, he drew his faithful auto-pistol and combat knife and began to find that damn magazine before the general arrived. Then, with a curse, he left his gas-mask on; he had heard about the noxious gases Chaos cultists used. Now, he was in his own private hell, the lens of the mask fogging every few minutes and he couldn't hear a damn thing.

Throwing open the only door in the room; he was confronted by two corridors, leading in opposite directions. Choosing the left one, since he was right handed, Knowles threw open the first door he came across. Two officers were sitting at a table, playing cards. The shocked look on their faces before Knowles blew them away was so priceless; he filed it away with the other ones in his head. There were quite a few, neatly catalogued by mission and success rating. Closing the door, Knowles searched the room for documents, hopefully a damn map of the place! The two officers had nothing on them, just las-guns and defaced Imperial currency. One footlocker in the room got Knowles attention. There was a giant padlock on the latch, but Knowles picked it in fifteen seconds. Glad I'm not too old to do this, thought Knowles, or else I'd be shot. In it was a book, bound in what looked like human skin, with a hand nailed to it, covered in... Knowles had to pull off his gas-mask to keep from choking in his own vomit. He wiped his mouth and, not looking in the locker, placed a quick-burning explosive in it and ran out the door, straight into a patrol of a dozen rebels.

"Saboteur!" screamed one, as if it wasn't obvious enough.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" shouted Knowles as he threw himself at the guards, shooting the one who spoke in the stomach and rammed his knife into the neck of another. A rebel shot Knowles in the leg, but he didn't notice, dragging his knife free and shoving it under the guards chin into his brain. Spinning, Knowles fired three rounds, killing two guards instantly, the third collapsed, frothing with a bullet in his throat. Another rebel tried to stab Knowles with a bayonet, but Knowles rounded on him and fired his auto-pistol. A dull, ominous click was the only sound. "OH SHIT!" shouted Knowles, with no time to reload, he dived and rolled, stabbing the rebel in the groin. Screaming, the guard dropped, the knife stuck in his pelvis. Knowles grabbed the nearest guard and slammed his palm into the guard's nose, killing him instantly. Spinning, Knowles drove his heel into one of the rebels throats, sending him to the ground, choking. Three left to kill. Just three more dead bodies to Knowles. Except one of the rebels had his las-gun out, and firing. Rolling backwards, Knowles scrambled amongst the corpses until he found a hilt. With a smile, Knowles drew a long-sword, probably from an officer. Swinging the sword, Knowles decapitated two of the last rebels. The last stood, wide eyed, hands shaking, a wet stain on his trouser front. Chuckling, Knowles reloaded his pistol and calmly put one bullet in the rebels head. He deserved to die. Quickly, Knowles removed his combat knife from the still living guard and put a single bullet in his head.

Running down the corridor now, Knowles simply threw open every door he found and killed whoever was inside.