Ch.1 The Mad, the Sad and the Strange
"From the memoir of Commissar Tarkus"
Priest: A good soldier obeys without question. A good officer commands without doubt.
Inquisitor Ignatius: But a good Inquisitor asks lots of questions and doubts everything.
The priest was executed after referring to Ignatius as a heretic, not knowing he was in fact an Inquisitor.
Sheroka hive was the largest of the planet's three hive cities, standing like a lone mountain sprouting out of the grasslands. Layer upon layer of city rose up into the sky, buildings and factories packed so close to each other that roads were almost non existent. But as confining and drab as the Gothic architecture was, the city was bustling with life and healthy movement. Each street and building was filled with merchants, mechanics, and factory workers, each living out their lives amongst the many spired metal and rockrete structure.
Evening was fast approaching when Governor Hector Durmont stepped out of his room onto the wide stone balcony. His city was just beginning to fall into its nightly habits, lights coming up one by one on the streets and buildings. He breathed in deeply of the slightly smoggy air and sighed contentedly. The temperature was just right that fall, allowing him to wander his complex donning only his light sleeping robe. His greying hair had been swept back into a messy pony tail to keep it out of his face as he savored the wind. He had moved his family's traditional homestead to the highest tower of the hive for just that reason, also so that he could enjoy looking down on the peons.
These were the moments he lived for, the ones in which he could just wander his home and relax. Sadly those times were almost completely gone since he had become Governor of Sheroka. Now he spent most of his time listening to one servant after another complain or accuse another of something or another. He frowned a little at the unpleasant thought and light a cigar worth more than most of the hive residents made in a month. The smoke puffed out for a moment before being whisked away by the gentle wind. He fell back into his calm state of mind as he watched the smoke float away.
Durmont's revelry was interrupted suddenly by a small point of light in the darkening sky, orange and moving slowly down the horizon. His eyes traced it for a few seconds, squinting in confusion. He had seen many ships coming and going throughout his life in Sheroka hive, mostly to pick up the many exports of the dozens of factories the city held. But something was strange about this one, he could feel it in his bones.
"Lord Governor," Durmont's secretary excused herself as she came to his side with a data slate in one hand and a stylus in the other. She was peering intently at the slate as she continued. "I have just received word that a civilian transport is sending a shuttle to the cargo hab landing pad with vermilion level clearance!" As she finished her spectacled eyes made their way to the point of light that the Governor was watching so intently.
"Vermilion level hu?" He repeated absent mindedly, frowning at the increasingly faster moving light. Then all at once what she had said hit him. "Vermilion!" He shouted, forgetting the ship instantly. As far as he knew Vermilion was the highest level in the whole of the Imperium, which he had never even seen before. It was the kind of thing reserved for threats the likes of which he couldn't even imagine.
"Yes sir," She said, all business. "And I think that ship is about to crash," She added, looking past her lord and flinching. Durmont didn't have time to turn around before a crack split the air and the speck of light smashed into the ground a few miles from the edge of his city. Even as high up as he was, Durmont could hear the grinding of the ship as it slid across the ground and finally halted with a rumble.
"Emperor's breath, I think someone just crashed a ship into my city!" He gasped, pulling his robes closed and making his way back inside as fast as he could.
"The shuttle crashed outside the hive sir," His secretary corrected as she matched his pace to remain beside him. "And it has been confirmed to be the Vermilion level shuttle," She stated after looking back at her slate.
"Get over there and see what's going on!" He rasped at her, pulling on his pants with a grunt. His face had become shinny with cold sweat, his nervous nature betraying him once more. The idea of someone so important enough to merit that kind of clearance dying on his doorstep didn't sit well in the Governor's stomach. He hurriedly pulled on his dress boots, not bothering to find any stockings. Of course this would happen when he was virtually nude. Before his secretary disappeared out his door he added, "And find me good shirt!" She didn't answer, damn. And things had been going so well, he thought ruefully.
-
Dana Printes watched the city moving beneath her through the shaded window of the Governor's personal transport. The old transport flyer bumped and jostled annoyingly as the pilot brought her over the city's outer wall. The thing had to be at least five hundred years old, a family heirloom as Durmont put it. She had given up trying to read her data slate while in the ship, too bumpy for her to even make out the words. So she waited, her fingers compulsively tapping on the side of the drab brown tunic she wore with her tan dress bottom.
"We're approaching the crash sight ma'am," The pilot shouted over the roar of the barely functioning engine. Dana nodded, relieved to be done with the infernal machine for the time being. Every time the Governor needed her to do something involving his "Family heirloom" she found herself vomiting within a few minutes. And this time didn't look to be going any better, she thought as her stomach grumbled in protest.
"Just get us down there!" She screamed as the ship hit the ground with a bump and the engine began to die down. Dana rushed out of the blocky looking transport and wobbled over to the edge of the crater the shuttle had left as it landed. No one could possibly have survived that, she knew as soon as she looked at the crumpled and broken metal shape dug half way into the ground. But she had her duties, and by the Emperor she would find out what was going one.
Dana prepared to navigate her way down with a sigh. For a man with almost three hundred servants, Durmont sure did like to send her on his errands. Her shoes slipped off the second she attempted to slide down the trench, delivering her in a heap to the bottom of the hole with a screech of surprise. The rolling motion coupled with the ride on the bouncy transport had her stomach heaving by the time she picked herself up. Before she even had time to touch the side of the scorched and dented vessel a grinding sound came from higher up the ship.
Dana had enough time to dive out of the way and squawk in surprise as a section of the ship's wall fell to the ground where she had been standing only a split second before. She spat out the mouth full of dirt she had acquired from the dodge and sat up to watch as a small walking ramp lowered from the dark square that had opened in the ship. By that time she had stopped bothering to wonder what the hell was going on. The ramp touched the ground with a crunch of glass and plastic, reminding Dana that she had dropped her data slate in the process of avoiding the chunk of metal wall. Too late now, she groaned as the little device was crushed into the mud.
A man stepped out onto the ramp with as much dignity as could be mustered by someone who had just been through a planetary crash landing. His black and red uniform was torn on one sleeve and the whole of it seemed on the verge of giving out. His eyes darted around woozily as he leaned onto the hand rail of the ramp. Dana noticed that other than a bleeding nose and a bruised cheek the dark haired man was quite handsome. The man finally took notice of the woman sitting in the mud below him and his mouth opened shakily to greet her.
Whatever he had been about to say was turned instead into a scream as a long leg ending in a large boot shot out of the exit and kicked the man in the rear hard enough to send him rolling down the ramp with a string of colorful curses. He came to rest with a moan at the bottom of the ramp, still cursing as he rose to his feet. Dana would have laughed at the spectacle were it not for her stomach. The man who had kicked the first came out next, and for a moment Dana didn't even know what to think.
The man was tall, really tall. And thin, really thin. His face was sharp and severe looking, but broken by a smile the likes of which she had never seen before. Without dedicating a moment of thought to the man he had kicked and possible injured the tall man lept over the railing with none of the wooziness his counterpart had shown and landed like a cat next to Dana. She yelped in surprise and clutched her roiling belly. The stranger smiled like a wolf at her from under his absurdly large brimmed hat, his eyes hidden behind a pair of tinted black glasses.
"I told him I could pilot a shuttle!" The man yelled with glee that terrified the simple secretary. The man pointed over his shoulder at the still recovering man on the ramp's bottom. "He told me I didn't have the training, showed him hu?" Dana didn't answer, too dumbfounded by what she was seeing. Finally the tall man seemed to notice her plight and offered her a gloved hand in greetings. "The name is Dante Ignatius!" He pumped her hand like a piston and smiled all the wider. The movement of the handshake was the last straw.
"Dana," She returned the greeting and threw up on his boots. Ignatius raised a brow in surprise and stepped away from the woman as she continued to vomit all over the place.
"What strange greetings they have on this planet," He mused, then shoved a finger down his throat casually to join her in the enthusiastic welcoming.