A Reasonable Crusade

Part I: Ex Tenebra Lux

Chapter I: A New World

The Warp was calm. Not completely calm, like a glass of water on a still table, but with little change, like a lake with a slight breeze. It had been that way ever since they had been knocked off course by something. No one knew what that thing was, but everyone thought they heard something faint that sounded like jester's bells. But that didn't make sense. Even for the Warp.

"Navigator, can you find the Astronomican now?" asked James. They had not moved for a while, due to the calmness of the Warp around them and the lack of a galactic lighthouse to guide them.

"I'm not sure," came the reply, "I can sense it, but it seems to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I've told you this before, and it hasn't changed." Sighing mentally, James reached his decision on what to do next.

"Dewarp. It's too dangerous to travel without the Astronomican in an unfamiliar area of the Warp, and with its stillness we won't be going any faster here than in the material realm." The message was passed along the crew, and they started preparations to carry out the Lord Inquisitor's command. At a different time or with a different person they might have questioned the order, seeing as how dewarping now would leave them stuck in the middle of space between star systems, but years of service under his command had taught them that it was better to listen now and object later. After a short wait, a "prolg" sound, and the taste of yellow in everyone's mouths, the Black Ship transitioned to reality. What the crew found on entering the Materium was not what they expected. Instead of the usual endless black punctuated by points of light, what they found was endless black punctuated by points of light and a small, blue planet with a shattered moon. How the moon shards stayed put relative to the moon was beyond each of them. The ship flew over to the planet and parked itself in orbit. Noticing the lushness of the planet, combined with the lack of orbital stations, James ordered the planet to be scanned, hoping to get information on his whereabouts. The stars around him certainly didn't look like any he recognized. The information brought back to him was mildly disturbing.

"Human life is present on the planet, but there is no Gothic architecture, or even a single temple dedicated to the glorious God-Emperor? Surely this means that it's a Chaos controlled world."

"We thought that too at first, but we found no Warp corruption on the planet," replied the nervous crewman. He was still green, unused to serving under an Inquisitor, and such a powerful one at that. "And besides, even if they were Chaos cultists, they hardly control the planet: Humans seem to be relegated to four major cities. However, we have detected no communications between them, only areas of lesser and greater static."

"So it's a feudal world?"

"While it does appear that they are pre-space age, 'feudal' is not quite right. Their technology is only slightly less advanced than ours, and their architecture seems almost Tau like."

James frowned at the implications of this. Was it a world of Gue'vesa that had somehow lost space-faring capabilities? He may not know too much about the Tau, choosing instead to focus on the Xenos of less annoying races, such as Eldar and Orks, but he was certain the Tau Empire wouldn't just let a world drop out like that.

"Prep a landing team. Tell the Astartes to send a null if they have one and have one of the Sisters on it as well. We don't know what we will find down there." After sending the crewman away to do his bidding, James got up and walked to the door leading to his quarters. While he always kept his bolt pistol on him, he decided that it may not be enough. He had no idea what was on the planet after all. He decided not to put on his Inquisitorial evil goon costume, or that stupid hat, instead opting for power armor only. He already had it on, since a Gellar Field failure could occur at any time, and the armor reduced his odds of being raped, killed, and eaten slightly. It might even make it happen in that order. Grabbing his power cane and power saber, he mag locked them to his waist. He finished by grabbing the specially modified lasgun Inquisitor Quercus had given him. He was still unsure how exactly the man had managed to disguise a pulse carbine as a lasgun and, more importantly, how no one had noticed it. Lasguns didn't usually shoot small blue balls of plasma. He headed down to the hangar bay where the landing team was preparing to drop. As he walked in, he noticed the expedition commander was arguing with one of the tech-priests. As he got closer he revised that observation to tech-priestess.

"What is going on here?" James stated in the most Inquisitorial voice he could manage. Considering that he was a Lord Inquisitor, this was quite Inquisitorial. After a surprised gasp from the expedition commander, the tech-priestess answered in a synthesized voice that retained some accent that sounded Vostroyan.

"This young fool is interfering with my Quest for Knowledge. He insists that I not be allowed on the expedition, despite it being the perfect chance to study the natives's technology!" Zora exclaimed. The commander started to protest but James cut him off before he could continue.

"I see no reason that the Artisan cannot come. She will be in more than capable hands," James said, directing a glance at the Astarte and Sister standing inside the Valkyrie Repressor, "and I am sure that she will be able to defend herself if needs be. Now, no more delay, and lets get on with it." With that, they all piled into the Valkyrie. The lights shut off and red emergency lights turned on as the ramp closed, and the Valkyrie took off. The ship shook and groaned as it entered the atmosphere, but no one worried. This was all standard course for the passengers, except for Zora, but her augmetics could tell her nothing was wrong. Actually, it was easier than standard, since they would not be making a hot landing. After a short wait in the inside of the shaking, groaning, Valkyrie, the pilot set the ship down. When James left the Valkyrie he saw it was after nightfall, and that they were in a small clearing in a forest with bright red leaves. They must've landed during autumn. After admiring the scenery, James told the armsmen to start preparing a base for them to operate from. James then called over the Astarte and Sororita. Zora was already standing nearby, eager to be off in search of the natives.

"The Artisan is eager to find out more about the natives. In order to safely escort her to one of the cities, you two will accompany us while we search for one. We will head west and south. If we do not find a city in one day, we will return and head in the opposite direction. Understand?" After the Marine and Sister nodded affirmative, James took out his power cane and started walking in a direction. Looking back, he called out to them, "Bolters at the ready. Remember, we known nothing of possible hostiles on this planet." Readying their bolters, the Marine and Sister followed him. As if just realizing, James added, "Also, don't use the flamer; we don't want to burn down the forest." This saddened the Sister.

After three hours of hiking unmolested through the forest, they reached the city. After bluffing, or rather, intimidating their way past the city guards they were allowed into the city proper. They entered what appeared to be a commercial district, but few shops were open at such a late hour. Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, Zora turned to look. It was a shop called "From Dust Till Dawn." Figuring this was as good a place as any to start learning about the natives, she walked over. Noticing that Zora was leaving, James motioned for the others to follow. They had put their bolters up before entering the city, so as not to attract too much suspicion. James still had his power cane out, since it could be used unpowered as a regular cane. Upon seeing the shop Zora was headed to, James remarked, "An entire store dedicated to cleaning supplies?"

The Marine jokingly followed up with "The Marines Immaculate would like that. Filthy traitors." The last part was bitterly said under his breath. Running to catch up with Zora, he got to the shop quickly and entered before her. Right into the back of a group of men in black suits.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" The leader of the black suits asked. James could see he was wearing a white suit and a bowler hat.

Incredulous, James asked of no one in particular, "Did we just walk in on a robbery?" James had seen many things during his time in the Inquisition, but walking in on a robbery, and one that was planned by a gang at that, was not one of them. The police were normally better at controlling crime than that. At least, they were in the upper hives, where he spent most of his time planetside. He didn't spend much time planetside. Not anymore. Hearing him, two of the black suits turned around and leveled their weapons at him. One had an odd-looking plasma gun. At least, that's what James assumed it was from the sound it made while charging up. The other black suit had a red khopesh-like sword.

Raising his hands, with his cane still in his right, James said "Now wait just a moment fellas, there's no need to be unreasonable-" It was at that time that a black suit came flying from the back of the store, through the plate glass window. Signaling to the two remaining black suits, the white coated man, mildly annoyed, commanded, "Get her!" At this point, James activated his cane, and hit the gun-wielding black suit's wrist. He was very careful not to hit the gun, lest the plasma cell detonate. That would not be fun for anyone inside the store. Pivoting to dodge the sword from the other black suit, James brought his cane around and delivered an Inquisitorial smack to the back of his head. The force of the blow, combined with the fact that it was, in fact, a power weapon he had been hit with, caused the man to crumple. At this point he noticed four things. First was that when the black suit flew the window, he had taken a little girl in a red cloak with him. The second, was that this girl had a scythe large enough for a Death Guard, third was that she could wield it as well as a Death Guard too, and lastly was the cane about to hit his unprotected head. Quickly scrambling out of the way, and through the open door, he noticed that neither Zora, the Astarte, nor the Sororita could be seen anywhere. Recovering, he retreated to where the red girl was standing, sizing up his opponent the whole time. Honestly, he didn't look like much, wearing a fancy coat and hat, but his smugness after seeing what the girl could do told James that he was a competent fighter, if an unarmored one.

"Well, Red, Pops, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening," to which James thought, 'More than you'd realize.' Continuing, the man said, "And as much as I'd like to stick around," while raising his cane, "I'm afraid this, is where we part ways." A small targeting reticule popped up from the base of the man's cane.

"His cane's a gu-" James had started to exclaim, but was cut short when the burst the man shot at his feet exploded. Luckily, it was not a direct hit, but he still went flying. He landed on top of a building, his armor taking most of the damage. Still that would hurt in the morning. And the next few mornings. And right now too. Shaking his head to clear his vision he noticed that the man had climbed to the top of the building he was on, and the red girl had caught up. James hadn't realized he had been knocked out. He could remember flying up and landing, but at no point could he remember getting close to blacking out.

"Hey!" The red girl called out. The white man mumbled something and James picked himself off the roof. While he was doing so, a VTOL craft, not entirely unlike a standard Valkyrie, but smaller, with smoother edges, and gray instead of green rose from the street on the other side of the building. With its spotlight shining on the red girl, the craft opened its side door and the man climbed in and shouted "End of the line, Red!" The man held up a red crystal and threw it at her. Firing a shot at the crystal, the rooftop went up as if a melta bomb had be detonated. Still recovering from the blast, James noticed neither the maniacal laughter, nor the newcomer. After fully recovering, James noticed that the craft looked more damaged then it had before, and was wobbling in the air. He then noticed the woman with the purple cape standing in front of the red girl. Mag-locking his cane to his side, after unpowering it, of course, he unslung the lasgun. Before he could fire a shot, the purple woman did something warpy, and summoned a storm out of nowhere. James immediately thought to detain her, but discarded the idea. She must've been sanctioned in order to pull that off without turning into Daemon food. With a pull of her hand, the woman brought large icicles, each the size of James's forearm, down onto the craft. It shook dangerously, but did not fall. He stared as a woman in a fire-themed dress, wearing high heels, no less, calmly walked into view from the cockpit. She summoned warp fire and launched it at the purple woman, who blocked it with a purple colored ward. The roof beneath her started to glow and exploded, causing red hot shrapnel to go flying. Before the shrapnel could go anywhere, the purple woman brought it all together into a large, purple glowing spear. When the fire woman saw the spear coming for her she sent three quick burst of warp fire at it, splitting it apart. Almost instantly, the spear reformed and starting coming at the ship again. The short delay was all the white man, who was now the pilot, needed to turn the ship. When the spear hit the ship's roof, instead of penetrating, in deflected off and split into three separate streams. Before they could hit the ship, the fire woman sent out a ring of warp firing and disintegrated all of them. Pulling himself back into reality, he fired off a burst from the lasgun. The lasgun fired small blue balls of plasma, which while most certainly not what a lasgun was supposed to shoot, was perfectly normal for a pulse carbine disguised as a lasgun. At the same time, the red girl started shooting at the woman, with what, James had no idea, but she was shooting with something. The woman simply blocked all of the girl's shots, but she dodged James's, and James could see them burn right through the ship. The roof started glowing again, and James jumped to the side. Before he could get off another shot the ship flew away and out of range. He turned to the side to find the red girl quivering giddily while the purple cloaked woman stared angrily at her.