Series I - So It Begins
Episode I – Victorus Aut Mortis
"Two suns shone in Venvax's bright red sky, illuminating the tapering skyscrapers of the planet's capital. The huge, spindly towers of Concordance rose from sandy dunes. Their bases were hidden among the constant storms of dust that ravaged Venvax's surface. Soaring walkways stretched between them and blue lights glimmered on their flanks. Small spacecraft flitted past, carrying goods to local markets and ferrying civilians around the city. Life here was lived entirely in the sky. Whole parks and plazas were held aloft on gigantic floating platforms more than a kilometre from end to end. There were monuments, grassy fields and lakes, all kept safely away from the invisible layer of searing heat at ground level. It had no official name, but the city's residents knew it as the Mirage: the world where the boundaries between the real and the imagined began to unravel. Those who ventured down there rarely returned. Even the lucky few had their minds ripped apart by its madness. The heat could turn anyone crazy. It was a simple fact of life that came with the territory. Living in Concordance meant knowing the Mirage was below. Normally the residents had little trouble pushing the thought to the back of their minds. But recently they had been given reason to fear it."
There was a pause.
"Why?" asked Caldus.
Iudex rolled her biological eye. Her augmetic implant did not move. It was hard at work projecting images into the air between them.
"That, my poor, mindless assistant," she said, sourly, "Is what we are here to find out."
They jostled in their seats as the shuttle swept down through Venvax's skies, skirting between thin wisps of white cloud. It was cool and air-conditioned inside the compartment. Outside, the air was so hot that they could have cooked food on the shuttle's hull. After a few moments the landing lights came on inside and they strapped themselves in. The shuttle came down with a hiss as hydraulic supports shot home into their cases.
"Well," Iudex said, as she climbed to her feet. "Here we are."
An alien was waiting for them at the base of the ramp. He was a Tau, right down to his cloven hooves and a cleft down the centre of his face. Males and females of the species were generally hard to differentiate but the Remembrancers had learned to tell them apart.
"Tau'fann," Iudex bowed. "It is our honour."
"The honour is mine, Gue'la," he responded. "Se'hen che lel. I am Sha'el, of the Water Caste, ordered here to better facilitate your arrival. My people offer you their sincere greetings in this time of difficult relations."
"Perhaps those greetings matter more now than ever," Iudex remarked.
Caldus said nothing. He was busy taking picts. His implanted retinae whirred quietly as he captured image after image of their surroundings.
"Please," Sha'el beckoned, "Follow me."
He led them down the metal stairs from the landing pad and across the plaza beyond. Humans and Tau both were gathered around the burbling fountain at its centre. Ahead of them was a towering edifice of stone that stood out from the towering skyscrapers around them. It was distinctly Imperial in construction, complete with tall, arched windows and mosaics depicting the Emperor and the eighteen Primarchs. Situated at the heart of the Tau city, the embassy made a bold statement about their mission.
"Come along, Caldus," Iudex irritably snapped.
"My apologies, my lady," he replied. "The newsreels will appreciate these picts immensely."
"We are not here to capture Concordance," she reminded him. "There are enough renditions of this place to fill a million memory implants."
"But they were not taken today, were they?" Caldus wryly observed.
Iudex said nothing. She let him get back to his work.
Sha'el was looking them both up and down, pretending to smooth his robes of office so he wouldn't be too conspicuous. Where Caldus was thin and spindly, fused with a hardwired exoskeleton to steady his movements for a less shaky capture, Iudex was muscular and tall. Her skin was as brown as the leather of her stocky boots and she wore her hair in long dreadlocks. Each of them wore the necklace of the Remembrancer Order, an Imperial Aquila with both eyes open to symbolise awareness of both past and future. He had met journalists and reporters before but these two were different. They seemed to be doing more than just their job. He had a suspicion as to why.
"This is your first time offworld," he observed, confidently.
Iudex beckoned for Caldus to go on with his work and turned to Sha'el.
"It is," she said. "I see the descriptions of your kind we hear on Deliverance are not exaggerated. You truly do have a keen mind."
"Not of all of us are as clever as I am," he quipped.
She chuckled.
"A joke from a Tau," she said. "I must make a note of that."
In a second their conversation had been marked as important and filed in her implanted memory banks for later use. She would review it that evening, as with everything they said to each other. Every single word was important.
Sha'el stepped past her and pointed.
She looked. In the distance, between the glimmering lines of spacecraft that wound through the city, were the stunted remains of a grand tower. It had obviously once been a centre of commerce and industry. That much was clear from the golden seams that snaked down its sheer sides. Some immense force had decapitated it. Instead of a proud plume it wore a jagged tip of broken supports and twisted girders. Smoke was still rising from its innards as they burned. Red and blue firefighting ships hovered around it, dousing it with water.
"Three days," Sha'el said, mournfully. "That is how long the fires have blazed."
"How many people . . ." Iudex began, but found herself unable to finish.
Sha'el gave the Tau equivalent of a frown.
"Too many," he said. "But we will make it right."
"We will," Iudex solemnly agreed.
Her eyes lingered over the remains of the tower for a few more seconds until she was able to tear them away. The three of them pressed on towards the embassy. Soon they were stepping into the yawning atrium and the grand hallway beyond. It was not long before Iudex was wishing they had arrived earlier than they did. The sight that awaited them was one she felt she had waited all her thirty-six years to see.
"The legends are true," Caldus muttered, and began taking picts frantically.
A living god was standing before them. Corvus Corax was a giant among Astartes, and among mortals he was nothing short of magnificent to behold. Somehow being surrounded by aides and adjutants made him even more impressive. His advanced hearing picked out their footsteps from the background noise and he turned to them.
"Ah, my two Remembrancers," he said, in a voice as black as night and as entrancing as a sky full of stars. "A pleasure. I am Primarch Corax."
"My lord Nineteen," Iudex said, as she knelt.
Caldus was too stunned to follow suit. He was still capturing the scene.
Sha'el bore a knowing smile. He and his people had been meeting with the Primarch continually since his arrival a few days earlier, and he had come to know him a little more than most. Each act of diplomacy and tact impressed him more than the last.
Corax was beautiful to behold. He was not handsome but intense. His dark hair fell loosely around his thin face and his blazing eyes were hidden by thick, thoughtful brows. At first glance he almost resembled the raven whose name he bore. His cheekbones were certainly sharp as a beak. His features made for a scary sight, but any fear evaporated the moment he spoke. His voice was power distilled into sound.
In that instant, every far-fetched report Iudex had read was validated. She could suddenly understand perfectly why the Imperium's downtrodden revered the Emperor and his Primarchs as gods. But she knew that was a comforting lie. The being that stood before her was a stunning achievement of science and learning. He was perfect not through some quirk of divine fortune. He was designed.
"The name Primarch will suffice," he told her. "I only wish we could be meeting under better circumstances. I trust the journey from Deliverance was an easy one?"
"Yes, Primarch," Iudex said, as Caldus finally knelt along with her. "The ship you sent for us was . . . well, it was more than luxurious."
"Nothing but the best," Corax said. "My father wishes word of our exploits to spread across his glorious Imperium. I could not agree more. What we do here, today, is of immense importance to his plans – and mine. To have it recorded by Deliverance's two finest Remembrancers is only fitting."
Iudex had been in training for her current position for the better part of a decade. In that time, she'd been embedded in missions by the Imperial Army to Deliverance's most hostile areas. She'd seen civil unrest. She'd interviewed dictators and dignitaries. And standing there in front of the Primarch, she did something she hadn't done in a long time. She blushed.
"Thank you," she said, meekly.
As she spoke, a group of officials came up to them. They were led by a man in long, flowing robes and with a golden circlet perched on his head. At its centre was the Imperial Aquila with its jewelled wings spread wide.
"Primarch," he said, sternly.
"Ambassador Colt," Corax nodded. "Is it time?"
"It is," Colt said.
"With me," Corax beckoned to them.
They fell in with his aides as they all followed the Ambassador through a set of tall arched doors and into a vaulted meeting chamber. Plenty of Tau were waiting for them, sitting at seats around the central table and conferring with each other. They had laid out their files and alien cogitators.
A pair of guards swung the doors shut once they were inside.
"My lord," Iudex ventured, "Might we . . ."
"Go to work," Corax whispered to her.
She and Caldus wasted no time. They circled the edges of the room, capturing dozens of picts and recording the audio. Every last detail had to be remembered. That was the very purpose of their being: to preserve, for posterity, the events unfolding before their eyes. It was their destiny.
The Tau at the head of the table rose to his feet. He had a stern face, even for one of their kind.
"That is O'Vei," Sha'el said. "You would call him Governor of Concordance."
"Governor," Corax said, at that very moment. "Aur'ocy shath'r'i tksan sha Tau'va."
Iudex turned her attention to the Primarch. She hadn't realised he spoke their language.
"Indeed it does," O'Vei agreed. "And with your efforts, it shall. Your repeated apologies have been most welcome to us, Primarch, but they will not be enough. I have conferred with my people and we are united in our decision. The perpetrators of this attack must be found and brought to justice."
"I understand," Corax promised him. "This speaks to a broader problem than the incident in and of itself. If relations between our two races were to break down, the Sagittarius Arm would be plunged into a war on a scale unseen since the Great Crusade."
At that, O'Vei chuckled.
"Your precious Crusade," he said, a little contemptuously.
Corax bristled visibly at his tone.
"In which my father united the Imperium under the banner of humanity and brought my brothers into the fold," he said, keeping his cool. "I know our views have superseded the simple black-and-white of those times, but it remains a glorious achievement."
"We hear much about those," O'Vei sharply replied. "Glorious achievements."
"The vanquishing of the Chaos Gods," Corax recited. "The formation and dedication of the Adeptus Mechanicus to advance mankind's technological boundaries, the elevation of countless billions of citizens from poverty, the . . ."
O'Vei held up a hand for silence.
Corax obeyed.
Iudex watched dumbly as wonder rippled tangibly through the room. Everyone knew Corax had come to apologise and promise restitution, but they hadn't expected him to be so submissive. And yet here he was, censoring himself at an alien's behest.
"Your Imperium excels at self-promotion," O'Vei said. "And it has impressed us before. This embassy, at the heart of a city built using your technology and ours, represents a vital step towards a brighter future for both of us. But now our relationship is tested like it has never been. You must solve this problem. You must bring these criminals to justice."
There was a pause.
Corax bowed to him respectfully.
"And I will," he vowed.