CHAPTER ONE: The Little Girl Of Lemano

It started with a cough.
"Are you okay?" Asked the little girl.
"Get away from me." Replied the vile being as it sat against a tree coughing,
spluttering and excreting what could only be described as some kind of bionic sap from its many wounds and distended pores.

"You look sick." Said the little girl.
"Do you need some help?"
"I said." He paused. "Get away from me or today might be your last!" His words were filled with a complex cruelty. He wanted the girl to leave because he knew it was bad for her to see him, but at the same time he was relishing in the higher emotions she was unknowingly displaying. Curiosity, concern and even fear. He was enjoying his conduct.

She looked at him with a confused gaze. She was
only trying to help the creature. She had never seen anything like this foulness before. She didn't know to keep away.

"My name is Suri" She said.

"I don't care." Came the reply. Clearly she had interrupted him. He needed her to leave or his position could be compromised.

"Are you a gretchin?" She asked as she pulled a small leaf off a plant and began to play with it in her hand.
"Mummy said all the gretchins and goblins were wiped out a long time ago. You look like the ones they show us in books in school but you look very sick Mr. Are you sure you don't need help? Let me help you if you need it."

He coughed and spluttered more phlegm. This time phlegm spewed out of his mouth like a bubbling volcano. It had solid chunks in it and even some blood. As it drizzled down his small, pimply chin the same fluid began to guzzle out of a gaping slit in his stomach. It bubbled and foamed from the two orifices in a soapy, sticky miasma of internal snot soup that made a weeping sound as air passed from this grotesque creatures lungs as it permeated through the openings. Emotionally though, it showed no signs of physical distress.
The creature finished his coughing and spewing then showed the little girl a big bladed weapon. It looked like a knife but it had a lot more spikes and edges on it. Each one pointed in a way so that when it was pulled out of an enemy it would drag their innards outwards at the same time. The edges of the blade weren't like teeth though. Not even like the serrated edges of an eating knife but every little nook on that blade looked deadly and dirty, like it was death just too touch it with naked flesh.
"Will today be your last?" He asked the little girl as he began to slowly carve the blade through the air.
"For the last time, be off with you. Lest I gut you."
He warned her.
She didn't know what 'gutting' meant.
She was only the tender age of six years old in
Terran years. She didn't understand what being gutted was, but she was sure it was bad.
"You're mean Mr." She said to the thing.
"I was only trying to help." She continued.

He coughed up more phlegm and spittle as he tried to laugh off her kindness, waving the blade in a motion
to send her on her way.
"Leave girl." He said with a cough and a chuckle.
She looked at him. She looked at it. Her eyes were sad because it had been so in-polite to her. She had looked past the unusual and the ugly features that the being harboured and extended the human hand of help. A tiny human hand but a human hand none the less. She didn't know it but this small excuse of existence had shown her a level of mercy very unusual for its species. Not only had it allowed her to live, he had allowed her to leave. Had his mission not been more critical he would of abducted the little girl and raised her through the ranks of a force that would be trained to decimate her own kind. Today, he didn't. She turned around and headed out of the woods
where she had been playing. She knew there was no more to be said of this, the newest interaction of her short lived life.
Suri was six years old. She had long, black hair and lived on the planet Lemano which was situated on the outer most eastern fringe of the Ultima Segmentum. Lemano was a lush planet. It fell within the golden
band of its sun which meant its climate and atmosphere was not only hospitable, it was accommodating and welcoming for human life. The planet was lined with wonderful coasts, forests and mountain ranges.
Its population were traditional people. They had seen the wonders of the Imperium up close as they originally hailed from Terra. That was ancient history though and since compliance the planet had been very much left to its own devices. Not bothering anyone and not being bothered by anyone. It paid its tithes on time to the
Imperium and sometimes even a little extra. Lemano was a planet of little incident, especially xenos incident, according to the official Imperium manuscripts.
The lack of action on Lemano meant that not much was known of the planet to much of the Imperium. It had all been documented well enough and submitted into the Imperial data base but the lack of Imperial attention the planet required meant that all that information went relatively unknown as it was very required to be called
upon. This was soon to change.
In recent times rumour's had been circulating around some small circles of the Imperium about a small rebellion taking place on Lemano which its army, made up of Imperial forces had been gallantly suppressing under their own strength for some time, much to the liking of the Imperial chain of command who were rather impressed with Lemano's ability to take care of its own business rather than call on help from the Imperium like so many other planets depended on. Maybe it was because they were situated so far? By the time help could get there the whole planet might of been over run. The military might of Lemano was one less worry for the Imperium.
"Kudos to them." Thought all the commanders.
The rebellion had started long before Suri's birth six years ago and for the last decade or so the Imperial army of Lemano had been having what it described as 'minor' troubles trying to suppress the forces of rebel cultists as it had always done so in the past. The cultist rebels had employed an migration plan which saw forces from off world make their way to Lemano to play war. Their methods were incognito and the Lemano army had yet to work out quite how the rebel cultists were making planet fall. This was an issue people such as Suri's father dealt with daily.

Suri's father was a soldier in the Imperial Army of Lemano. He spent his days vigorously attempting to fight off the most recent and long drawn cultist rebellion that had long since been ravaging the landscape of Lemano.
The fighting had been steadily moving closer and closer to the civil centres of Lemano City. The capital of Lemano and the centre of human population on the planet. One city. The natural wonders of the land had largely been untouched by the people so as to preserve the planets natural beauty, but now this had backfired on them as they presented one large target for any attack on the planets infrastructure. The fighting was so close now Suri could hear it at night and only pray that her father was safe. So close that he could often sneak off the front line and visit his little girl, much to the annoyance of his superior officers.
Suri exited the woodland and made her away across the yet unclaimed fields that lay on route to her sector in the cities capitol. She made sure to keep low as she waded through the over grown crops which had been untended since the capitol came under threat. Sometimes the cultists took reconnaissance of the city from these crop lands. Was this who she had encountered in the forest?
"Why are they fighting us?" She thought as she ran through the over grown crops.

She could see the lights of battle on the horizon and said a silent prayer to the Emperor to let her father come home safely that night for one of his regular, un-scheduled visits.
It was almost sunset. Dinner would be ready soon. Suri's mother had recently started to teach her little girl a few basic tricks about cooking and she wondered if her mother would allow her to help in the kitchen that night. She picked up the pace a little and before long she was in the safety of her people.
"Mummy I met a goblin today." She yelled out as she entered through the auto door of her hab space.

"Goblins don't exist my angel." Said her mother without really paying much attention to her.

"But I did meet one today!" Insisted Suri.
"It was mean to me." She said.
"It showed me a big knife. I think he was going to cut me if I didn't leave him alone." She began to tell her mother.
Suri's mother stopped what she was doing and suddenly devoted her whole attention to her daughter.
"Where did you see it?" She asked.
"In the woods." Said Suri. "I was playing." Her voice as serious and honest as a child's could get.

Suri's mother didn't say much in response to her daughters claim.
"Don't play there anymore." She said, as she continued on her work of preparing the evenings meal.
Suri could see her mother had a look of worry on her face.
"You have classes after dinner tonight. Don't forget." She reminded Suri with a stern but soft tone.
"I won't mumma." Said Suri. Her excitement now replaced with curiosity and anxiety.
Suddenly the auto door of the hab slid open. It was Suri's father. He wasn't on duty so and was able to sneak away from his barracks to see his little girl.
"Pappa!" She shouted as she ran to him. He knelt down and opened his arms to receive her, her hands painting a portrait of affection on his back as he hugged the prize he had been fighting so hard for in the trenches on the skirts of the civil capitol hub.
His uniform was stained with mud, blood, oil and any other number of substances he had to drag his body through during his previous shift in the trenches. His long coat was soaked. It was thick and of a fabric that had the consistency of short hairs, like a stubbly beard being worn as a coat with rainbow oil slicks swirling between the tight, tough fibres as they mixed with the dirty water he had been fighting in.

"I got six today my angel." He said.

"Wow! Six!" She said with an innocent excitement about her.

"I managed to grab this off one of them for you."

He handed her a pendant. It opened up and had a space set out to hold a picture .
It was golden in colour and shine. The cultist it was plundered from hadn't had a picture in the designated area, more likely than not he had taken it from a fallen Imperial guardsman and would later sell it
amongst his cult brothers.
She looked at it. She was pleased. She knew her father

loved her.
She ran off to another room. When she returned she had a small photograph of the family of three.
She put the photo into the space set in the pendant and her father secured it around her neck.
"Now go get ready for dinner angel." He said to his little girl.

He patted her on the shoulder and she ran off to prepare for supper.