Georgia shook her head as she picked herself up off the floor, dizzy and out of balance, she had a stonking headache which rang throughout her head. With blurry heterochromatic eyes, she looked at the squad of armoured soldiers slowly advancing on her position with strong, purposeful strides.
They were clad in surprisingly ornate blue and gold armour, with an upside-down omega symbol stamped onto one of the pauldrons. From the looks of it, it looked like Georgia would have to give herself up to the menacing warriors. However, the very recently awoken superhuman who was still staring intently at the battleship called off the soldiers with a simple command. It seemed that her strange new ally commanded a position of respect in the strange place which she'd found herself.
It was then that the human serfs knocked themselves out of their stupors, as a number of them started to rush towards Georgia's saviour with advanced looking scanners and medical equipment in hand.
With Georgia's vision returning to a decent version of normality, she glanced at the squad of soldiers still eyeing her with suspicion, and the work that the serfs were doing to their master. From the way the normal humans were fretting over their charge, the battleship guessed that the man had been out cold for some time.
Using her enhanced hearing, Georgia could hear the sounds of battle from outside the apothecary walls, the constant boom of gunfire interspersed with large explosions told the story of an impossibly large battle unfolding somewhere nearby.
After a further half an hour, the superhuman slipped out of his cot and donned a simple robe. Turning around, he spoke in exactly the same voice which he'd used when Georgia was stuck in the warp. "Come, it is time we moved." The man commanded.
Unconsciously, Georgia followed the man past the armoured soldiers who stared at her like hawks as she passed by them. In the back of her mind, she could have sworn that she was being mind controlled. Although, the battleship didn't think on it much. She would have no idea what to do in the situation she'd found herself in anyway so was actually pleased that someone knew what was going on.
Striding into a long, wide arched corridor, Georgia's temporary guide started to speak again. "You have many questions, I can tell."
Understatement, Georgia thought, having a pretty good hunch that the man was reading her mind.
"It was useful that you came when you did" he continued. "I was weak, and the demon had taken the chance to imprison my soul within the warp, preventing me from waking up from my coma. You were the vessel that I used to free my mind from the trap the monster had set, while also freeing you and banishing the servant of the 'Changer of Ways' for the time being."
As the still unnamed man said this, Georgia noticed more of the armoured warriors rushing up and down the wide thoroughfare, leading further credence to the idea that something was under heavy siege.
There were a million and one questions whirling around in Georgia's mind. What was this place? Who were these people? Why was she here? The most pressing ones for the time being.
Her guide decided to ignore her questions as he continued. "A great calamity struck this galaxy a number of years ago. It was a planet, called Cadia which held back the immaterium - the place where you did battle with the demon - was destroyed by an invasion without number. You saw how much emotions have an effect on that realm, correct?"
Georgia nodded, reminding herself of how the shapeless ghouls which circled the battlefield had been bent to the overpowering presence of the demon birds will.
"I am attuned to that place. It is a cruel gift." The man led Georgia down a side passage and through a large bulkhead guarded by automated gun turrets. On the other side of the portal, the battleship's surroundings became more ornate, signifying that people of supreme merit resided in the place which she'd entered. "It mortally wounded me, forcing me into a coma as my weak mind was ensnared by 'Master Darkeye'".
"What is this place?" Georgia dumbly blurted out as she stared at the beautiful iconography adorning the walls of the passages that they walked.
"This is the Fortress of Hera" Varro Tigurius replied, having implanted his name in the battleships mind. "It a mighty fortress situated on the world of Macragge, a capital world within the Imperium of Man."
Georgia had no idea what any of that actually meant. But she could easily infer that the place was of utmost importance for the intense battle raging outside, the sounds of war still occasionally filtering into the halls that she and Tigurius walked.
Eventually, the pair alighted at an armoury of sorts, filled with ancient relic weapons and gilded suits of armour. "Decimus, if you will" Varro called out. A robed serf answering the call a moment later, a pair of mechanical, humanoid constructs flanking the man.
"You called master?" The serf reverently replied, bowing his head in supplication.
"I have rested long enough. It is time that I came to my chapters aid and added my strength to the defence of the fortress."
"As you wish" Decimus nodded his head, tapping a number of buttons on a nearby console, a suit of armour encased within a stasis chamber detaching itself from the wall.
Taking his place on an elevated harness, his arms outstretched, Tigurius continued talking to his serf, all while Georgia curiously looked on. "I need you to contact the Chapter Master, I require an audience with him now that I am awake."
"Unfortunately, that is not possible at the moment my lord" Decimus replied. "Marneus Calgar is currently coordinating the defence of the fortress from the Chaos onslaught."
"I see" Tigurius narrowed his eyes in thought as his vambraces were slid onto his arms and locked into place.
"Georgia" he then turned to the battleship. "Since you are here, your destiny and your mission in this place not yet complete, you will help with the defence of the fortress."
"And what of my nature, and the fact that I am a woman?"
"Of no concern" Tigurius grunted as his chestplate was fitted, bundles of cables and sensors sliding into ports on his back. "My reputation, and the orders of the Chapter Master will stop anyone questioning why you are here at this time. Although I would caution against using the powers vested in you to avoid the gazes of those of whom neither myself or the Chapter Master can protect you from."
"I have a purpose here?" Georgia cocked her head, confused.
"Otherwise why would you be here?" Tigurius retorted, now fully armoured in the ornate armour of his station. "Your kind has been sent to war on ancient Terra against an alien race, one which has been tainted by the foul forces of Chaos. You saw for yourself how your friend was twisted by the thing inhabiting her soul. You have been sent here to prepare for what is going to come to pass on ancient Terra in the coming months and years."
In response, Georgia slowly took in the information, pleased that she finally had some context as to why she was where she was. Still, there were many, many more questions than answers which she hoped would eventually be answered or reasoned out.
"As for now, your purpose is to help shore up the defences of this fortress against those that assail it."
On cue, Decimus appeared in front of the battleship, a weapon held in his outstretched hands. "This is a bolter my lady" the man quietly said. "It is a simple, honest, and powerful weapon. Treat it well and it will see you through the coming battles."
Gratefully accepting the unexpected gift, Georgia hefted the weapon in her hands, feeling the reassuringly solid weight of the weapon. Surprisingly, it helped to calm the storm still raging in her mind. The battleship still had no idea what the hell was going on. But perhaps more interestingly, and perhaps worryingly, she felt an unnatural power quietly residing in the recesses of her mind.
Although, she threw all those thoughts aside as she followed the Chief Librarian out of the arming chamber and out into the main thoroughfares of the fortress interior. She was going to war, a simple exercise to occupy the mind in killing first, before the thing attacking killed you.
Monarch stepped out of the portal. It was an unpleasant sensation having one's innards rearranged many times over the course of a second or so. Either way, she shook her head and stood up straight, surveying the vast and desolate landscape arrayed before her.
It was a deserted land of rusty red sand blown up into huge dust storms which scoured Monarchs face dry with their intensity. Large, rolling sand dunes inched forward, ever so slowly at a tectonic rate, fuelled by the intense winds which buffeted the battleship.
Shielding her eyes with her arm, Monarch squinted azure eyes to survey the landscape, to see if she could find where the angel was.
After a minute of searching, she came up with nothing, and glancing behind her, saw that the portal Monarch had stepped through had sealed, with no trace remaining of it. A brief break in the ruddy, orange clouds allowed the battleship to look up to the stars, to see swirling tendrils of hellish purple energy spearing across the darkened sky. Of the planets sun, she could see no trace.
With no clue as to compass bearings, Monarch decided to step off the rocky outcrop she had materialised from and started walking through the dust storms and buffeting winds. The battleship got all of five metres before she paused to take off her shoes, high heels not being the most ideal clothing item for sandy terrain.
Gingerly padding across the scorching hot sands, Monarch saw the aftermath of battle. Human bodies clad in armour littered the landscape, some on their own, others in groups. For as far as the eye could see, the battleship saw bodies, both of the humans, and of some foul alien species straight out of a nightmare.
They had chitinous bodies, multiple eyes and razor-sharp appendages which looked like they could cut through bone like a hot knife through butter.
Some of the aliens were small, pathetic looking things, while others were monstrous beings easily the size of a two-storey building, having done battle with tanks and war walkers, the remains telling a story of a titanic battle.
Indeed, the entire area, with all of its dead, told of an almost incomprehensibly large battle which would have shaken the very foundations of the earth beneath. Still, Monarch could not tell who was the defender, and who was the aggressor. However, from out of the gloom of the dust clouds, a dark shape started to coalesce.
Momentarily, Monarch thought she'd have to defend herself. It thankfully did not have to happen, as she stumbled across the remains of a starship, easily over a kilometre in length as the hull disappeared into the swirling sands to her left and right. It seemed that an equally legendary battle had taken place in the sky above the planet.
Trudging through the death and destruction around her, Monarch momentarily gagged as the stench of death carried by the hot wind momentarily overwhelmed her. It was making her delirious. The battleship lost all sense of time and direction, trekking through the sand plains. A couple of hours had probably passed at most, but for the hot, sweaty, nauseous woman, it felt as though days had passed.
It was not how Monarch had envisaged her calling to be. She expected to be greeted with open arms as a saviour, shoved directly into the crucible of war defending her country from whatever threats demanded her attention. Not shuffling through some godforsaken desert on a dead and war-torn planet.
With her mouth as dry as the desert around her, Monarch felt herself collapse to the ground still amid the carnage which followed her aimless journey. She could not go on, her bones felt as though she had been walking for days without rest. The battleship was about to fall flat on her face with exhaustion when the stormy dust clouds momentarily cleared, revealing the golden figure of the angel half a kilometre in front of her, his armour seemingly untouched by the harsh and unforgiving conditions of the desert.
Aching, the red-haired woman picked herself up, walking towards the angel with a painful slowness which betrayed her physical weakness. She got there though, and with tired eyes, looked upon what the man was silently gesturing to.
It was the carcass of an alien leader. Rotting bundles of muscles told about a creature of immense power, the thing's body taller than a normal human even while lying down, and a huge brain of purply grey matter showed a cunning mind.
Pacing around the creature, Monarch spied the remains of its opponent. A human, in the faded heraldry of a position of supreme office. The armours chest plate ripped wide open from a large gash caused by the talons of the alien. The unhelmeted human was some five metres away, though his weapon was impaled in the brain of his opponent. Moving closer, the halberd was undamaged, shining resplendent, the sand and the passing of time seemingly having no effect on the master crafted blade.
"A great and terrible battle of survival is being waged on this planet" the angel's voice made Monarch turn around in shock, noticing the man was standing but a few paces away from her. "The galaxy as many know it is ending. Aliens and endless horrors now roam freely within the realms of man, with seemingly no answer being given in return apart from a stubborn will to survive. It is human nature after all, to weather and overcome. Yet I fear that this time, on this barren, yet holy planet, that is not going to suffice."
With sure strides, the angel started to pace around the alien leader as he continued. "Countless swarms of these creatures have assailed the human defenders of this planet. Each stronger and more terrible than the last. You have seen as much during your travels through this place. Every one exacting a toll on the defenders, each pushing them further back through their endless numbers. Many champions have fallen, and many are going to fall before the war has run its course." The angel stopped from his pacing to look at the armoured warrior which had faced the alien behemoth.
"Through successive assaults, the aliens have pushed the defenders back to their fortress, the Arx Angelicum. But even the thick and sturdy walls of that ancient place will be unable to stop the hordes which crash against its defences."
Turning, the man slid the halberd out of the alien's head, offering it to Monarch with an outstretched hand.
"Take it" the angel commanded. "It is an ancient weapon, thousands of years old which has been passed down through generations of Chapter Masters. It holds a place of untold significance to some of the defenders of the fortress and if it is returned to them, will give them peace knowing that yet some part of their Master lives on."
Monarch did not know exactly what the armoured human meant. But she also realised that the weapon was indeed significant just by looking at it.
Gingerly, she gripped the relic by the haft. With practised ease, she twirled the halberd around in her hands for a moment to get a feel for it. It was heavy, but also comfortable and perfectly balanced. The battleship also felt it rejuvenate her tired body and mind with its touch, burning away the dizziness in her head.
The angel was looking into the far distance as he spoke a few moments later. "You will return it to the remaining defenders at the fortress. That is the first task that I ask of you."
Following his gaze, Monarch aligned herself and pointed in the direction they were facing. Glancing over, she saw the angel subtlety nod his haloed head.
With that, Monarch started walking, the halberd held in an easy one-handed grip, the tip of one of the blades almost touching the sand below as she pulled her makeshift scarf over her face to shield her from the unkind elements.
With renewed vigour, and a clear purpose, she soon disappeared into the dust storms, her destination clear.