St. Intercess - Synopsis
Battle Sister Regalia of the Heartbleeder Order is tasked by her Order's Leader Canoness Superior to capture and convert a heretical Commander of a Battleship that has crashed on a Chaos infested asteroid in orbit close to the Eye of Terror.
To successfully convert the Commander she needs an Inquisitor and a Chirurgeon.
Regalia employs one Inquisitor Hellström through blackmail, him being secretly infected with a lingering case of Chaos.
Hellström is instructed by Regalia to retrieve a certain Field Chirurgeon and Neuro Surgeon rumoured to have once cleaned a patient's soul from Chaos.
Hellström find Merrick in a holding cell on an imperial planet, arrested for denying wounded soldiers euthanasia, the Emperor's peace, claiming it's against the Emperor's word to kill a fellow brother in battle.
During Hellström's interrogation with Merrick, Merrick discovers that Hellström is infected with Chaos and promises to keep Hellström's Chaos at bay if he is rescued from the Court Martial.
Hellström acts as defendant in court and saves Merrick from a death sentence by recommending employment for the Battle Sisters and surgery as punishment.
The Adeptus Mechanicus installs a Carnifex in each of Merrick's palms with a voice activating function.
By uttering the words "Emperor's Mercy, Emperor's Peace" metal pistons spring out from his palms, killing the wounded instantly and virtally painlessly. A chip is also connected to his brain to activate the Carnifex by force of will after long use and regular mental practice.
By circumventing Merrick's moral dilemma by a voice activated euthanizer and working for the Battle Sisters he is released from jail, but the judges wants to see the equipment in action.
Merrick is forced to wade through a battle field, killing wounded soldiers and civilians with the new invention. He is attacked by a wounded Chaos Marine but survives thanks to the Carnifex.
Back on Regalia's Transport ship 'The Bumble' Hellström and Merrick rejoin with Regalia and she tells them about her mission.
After arriving at the crashed Battleship they discover it to be empty, save for one depressed Commander.
Already rejected by Chaos she had steered the ship towards the Eye of Terror in hope of being infected again, however once Chaos rejects a human body that person becomes Illuminated and is forever free from the terrors of Chaos.
The team's arrival spurs an attack from Chaos forces which the depressed Commander gladly approves, but they manage to escape by knocking her unconscious.
She wakes up. 'Let me go! I'm evil!' she stirs. 'No you're not.' Regalia responds.
Regalia, Hellström and Merrick work together to stabilize the mind of the insane Commander by physical, mental and astral Chirurgy.
After recovering somewhat, the Commander tells the team of a prophecy, a variant of the Sensei-Numen theory.
The Sensei-Numen theory goes like this: When the Emperor finally fails and dies, his children known as the Sensei are meant to be sacrificed by the Illuminati, forming a new godly entity called the Numen, the shining-path-incarnate, thus saving the universe from Chaos domination.
However, a branch of the Adepta Sororitas (Daughters of the Emperor) believes the future doesn't lie in 'Numen' but in 'No men' and a being called the Intercess, a living saint, the female counterpart to the Emperor, Mother of all human life.
Regalia reports to the Canoness Superior about the mission's success and the new prophecy which gets confirmed by the Canoness.
Regalia is told that the Intercess already exists and receives new orders, to visit the Intercess at the end of the Emperor's shining light, the light at 'The end of the tunnel of the Universe'.
The Intercess shall then return to Terra and fill the vacant position as Abbess, head of the Adepta Sororitas, leader of all Sisters of Battle.
So was the plan anyway.
The 4 travel to the edge of the Universe to a planet where the Intercess rules over a planet entirely consisting of women.
The Intercess is a shape-shifter, constantly changing form but always in the shape of a human female.
She denies the Canoness Superior's offer to become Abbess, claiming that her destiny lies elsewhere, but adopts the saved Illuminated Commander into her dynasty.
Regalia and her two friends gets tasked to continue their journey through the universe, to capture, convert and return any Illuminated 'No Men' they find to the Intercess.
The End?