The black rose chapter 1
It looks so strangely peaceful from here. The Inquisitor thought as he stared down on the planet. Almost hard to believe it's a world at war.
He leaned on the glass window and stared. First down at the planet and then into the void. The black, seemingly endless void. Only a few distant stars betrayed it. Staring back at the world he could see the white clouds rolling over the planes, the oceans and the mountains. He could see the orb slowly moving, like it was spinning towards his ship.
The sight made him chuckle. Compared to the void, the planet might as well have been battleground covered in fire and flame.
"What is it you find amusing?" A synthetic voice asked.
The Inquisitor didn´t turn to answer. "Irony, tech-priest." The tone of his voice did nothing to hide his sarcasm. "Irony."
The tech-priest produced a noise. It was a buzzing, annoying noise, but its intent was clear. The tech-priest was snickering. Laughing, albeit an unnatural mechanical laughter.
"Do you find that funny?" The Inquisitor asked.
"Yes." The tech-priest replied with cold, drab voice.
The answer puzzled the Inquisitor. He had never experienced a tech-priest being amused, let alone laughing. He found it both intriguing and unnerving.
"What is it you find funny about it?"
"Because you speak of irony when you are still mostly made of water and fat." The tech-priest replied.
The Inquisitor turned and looked at the tech-priest. While this one wore the same crimson robe as the other of its kind and it was more or less impossible to tell how much of it still remained human or if there were any parts that where still human left in it. Though he could tell this one apart from the others by the third, metallic arm protruding out from its back and the pair of yellow, dotted eyes the stared out from the hood.
"I am not sure why you find that funny." The Inquisitor crossed his arms over his chest.
"You are a walking contradiction. Inquisitor Derik." The yellow eyes moved unpaired with each other as they examined the Inquisitors movements. "That is what I find funny."
That answer just perplexed him even more. The worshipers of the Machine-God have a strange sense of humor. Maybe the parts of that are still human just seek out laughter wherever they can find it. Still, there was something intriguing about this tech-priest. Mostly the fact that this one seemed to still be able to laugh.
"What is your name tech-priest?"
"Tayber, Inquisitor Derik."
"Well Tayber," Derik tested the name. It still gave him little clue weather the tech-priest had started as a woman or a man. I´ll just assume it's a man on some level. "Do you like games?"
The yellow dots snapped to Derik's eyes. "What kind of game?"
"A game I discovered quiet recently. We both play with 16 figurines each across a squared board and try to take out each other's figurines. The exact name of escapes me though…" Derik rubbed his stubbed chin.
"I know of it." The tech-priest said. "It's an ancient game originating from Terra."
"Are interested in a game then?"
"I have duties to attended before we land on Prostoru." Tayber released his eyes from Derik´s. "Besides, I´ve played the game for a long time. You´d be humiliated if you tried to challenge me."
"In that case what do you have to lose?" Derik shrugged. "It'll be a few hours before we enter the atmosphere, and considering what you´re saying the game should not last more than a few turns. And I´m aiming to master this game."
"Master?" Derik suspected if Tayber still had brows they would be leaping to the top of his forehead, if he had a visible head. "That will take years, decades of dedicated play. Do you have that time?"
"I don´t know." Derik replied. "When I was a young, still being taught, one of my teachers said that best way to learn is to learn from the best. Even if they're not teaching they can display techniques and give you experience like no other."
The yellow dots purred as they moved around under the crimson hood.
I´ve got his interest now. Derik thought. "Soo are you interested?"
"Yes."
"Good." Derik put the board on the table and prepared his figures. Made of black marble and carefully carved, even a blind man could put his hands on the figures and tell the difference between a Adeptus Astartes and a Adeptus Sororitas in a mere moment.
Tayber prepared his own. They were identical to Derik´s pieces apart from their color. The tech-priest figures were made off white marble. With mechanical limbs the tech-priest finished setting up his pieces before Derik was even halfway done.
"White goes first." Derik gestured to Tayber with a little nod.
The tech-priest made no remark on it. He looked at the board with one eyes and stared at Derik with the other. After a few moments, Tayber made his first move. He moved one of his guardsmen two squares forward.
Derik glanced down at the board, and then back at Tayber. It was frustratingly difficult, trying to read anything from the tech-priest. There were hardly any remnants of a face to speak of and whatever was left was hidden beneath the shadow of the hood. He moved his own guardsmen two squares forward, putting it diagonally next to Taybers.
"Tell me, tech-priest, when did you first learn of this game?"
"A long time before you were born." Tayber moved another of his guardsmen forward, this one only one step.
"Oh, I´m a lot older then I look." Derik replied and took out Taybers guardsmen with his own. "But for all I know, you could be a hundred years old or a thousand years old. Those augmentations slow down aging a fair bit I assume."
Both of Taybers eyes now looked back up at Derik. They held on him for a short moment before they returned to the board. "Age becomes irrelevant when you remove the weak flesh from your bones and replace it with the blessing of the machine spirit. Only knowledge and skill matters then." The slender, black metallic fingers of his left hand moved the Adeptus Astartes over the front of guardsmen.
Wonder if that was the tech-priest found so funny? Derik rubbed his chin and stared down at the board. Purity? He moved another guardsman forward, opening a path for his Adeptus Sororita.
The yellow eyes darted across the board. They jumped from one figure to another, locking on for a short moment before moving on to the next one. After less than half a minute the tech-priest had gone over the entire board. Tayber moved another of his guardsmen forward, clearing the path for his Dreadnought.
He likes this game. Derik thought. Correction, he loves it.
"What was it like?" Derik asked.
"What was what like?" Tayber responded.
"Before you received the blessing of the machine spirit, what was it like to live? You said time becomes irrelevant when the blessing is on you but surely you must remember something before you became relieved of flesh." Derik made the move he suggested the previous turn and moved his Adeptus Sororita forward. Into the open.
"It is not a time I consider or concern myself with." Tayber moved his dreadnought forward.
"Why?" Derik asked, moving his own guardsmen forward. A simple response to whatever tactics Tayber was playing at.
"Do you consider the time before you were born? Are there memories past your own entrance into the matterium that concern you?"
Derik had to stop himself from laughing. Only a brief, muted chuckle escaped. For a moment, he was worried that Tayber might have heard it but he was far too busy looking over the board again. There is much beyond the point of my birth that concern me, tech-priest. History and experience are what we use to determine the future. Now it was almost impossible for Derik not to snicker. You call me a walking contradiction, still you value knowledge while considering your own past to be irrelevant. You are hysterical.
When Derik looked back down at the board he could see that Tayber had moved his guardsmen forward, putting them in line to attack Derik´s own guardsmen but if he did that he would be exposing the piece the dreadnought.
"To answer your question, Tayber." Derik used his guardsmen to take out Taybers, putting the piece in line for the dreadnought. "I agree. There is a point to what you are saying. The past is not much more than a shadow in the light of the future, why should we concern ourselves with the shape of it?"
The eyes stared back at Derik. This time they were not locked on, the perfectly stiff movement seemingly melted away as the cogs and joints started buzzing like beetle wings and shafts moving like a pair of metallic worms.
"It's your turn." Derik remarked after a few moments of silence.
Tayber looked back down on the board. The bundle of wires and metallic tentacles that were supposed to be hands hovered over the bone-white figures. Instead of using the dreadnought to remove the guardsmen, like Derik had expected, Tayber used his Astartes to leap over his own guardsmen and take remove Derik´s.
In part Derik was surprised and in part he was unimpressed. He looked over the path that his Astartes could take from there and shortly realized that Tayber had doomed a valuable piece for small achievement. Not quite what I had excepted.
He took out the Astartes with his guardsmen and waited for Taybers next move.
The tech-priest, seemingly realizing the mistake, used his remaining Astartes to move in the way for Derik´s Sororita.
Derik took a moment. He moved up one if his guardsmen to block the Astartes path, but also exposing his emperor as a result. It was always risky, this part of the game, when one player decided to move up his forces and ended up exposing his emperor as a result. But it came with its own advantages.
Tayber moved his dreadnought forward, taking out Derik´s guardsmen that had taken out the tech-priest´s Astartes.
Derik held the fallen guardsmen in his hand. "You know there are people who think this game is good practice for learning strategy?" He moved the untouched Sororitas forward, making it a target for Taybers Astartes.
"What kind of strategy?" Tayber asked.
"The kind used in warfare." Derik replied as Tayber made his move. The tech-priest moved his Astartes and Derik realized his own mistake. He miscalculated the movements of his guardsmen and realized there was nothing to take out the Astartes when it had removed the Sororitas.
"How exactly?" The tech-priest locked his eyes back on Derik.
"I´m not sure." Derik answered. "In a battle the opposition don´t play by the same rules, they don´t have the same troops, they don´t fight on an equal battlefield. There´s almost nothing about it that resembles an actual battle."
"It's your turn, Inquisitor." Tayber reminded him.
Derik looked down on the fallen Sororita and let his hand hover over the piece. He moved the Sororita forward and placed her in line with Taybers emperor. Only a single guardsman stood in the way.
"Although, there are two things this game has in common with the theaters of war." Derik noted.
"And what is that?" Tayber asked, moving his Astartes forward. It took Derik little thought to realize that the tech-priest was aiming to use to piece to take out his emperor.
Derik answered Taybers move by moving his own Astartes forward. "It teaches you to value of individual pieces."
Tayber noticed the advance Derik was making with the Astartes and used his own to take the piece out.
"And it teaches you to sacrifice our troops." Derik moved his Sororita forward two squares. "I win."
The tech-priest scanned across the board. Apart from the buzzing and purring of his joints, the tech-priest was quiet. His slinky right hand hovered over the board, stopping for a brief moment before moving on to another piece. Eventually his hand retreated back beneath into his sleeve. "You are right, Inquisitor." The yellow dots locked onto Derik´s eyes again. "Seems I´ve lost."
"You played well." Derik gave the tech-priest a courteous nod.
"Goodbye, Inquisitor." The tech-priest rose and left Derik in his chamber.
A good player and a sense of humor. Derik thought when Tayber was gone. But to proud and arrogant to see when he´s being played. Shame.
He got up and walked back up to the window. He stared at Prostoru and drew another chuckle. This one was small and dry. Compared to what this planet neighbors, it might as well be paradise.
He stared away from the planet, beyond the void and gazed into light coming from the enormous pink firestorm, slowly shifting across the black void. The waves consumed and birthed little stars with flickers of their tongues. Though the storm was pink, the flames shifted to other unnatural colors. Merely looking at it made it feel like there where ants trying to tunnel their way out of his stomach. Everything is peace compared to the eye.
