Benjamin flopped into a plush leather chair in his personal quarters aboard Dread Perceptor and reached over to snatch the crystal goblet of amasec from the polished hardwood side table next to the chair. The room was panelled with rare, fine grained, perfume-wood, a luxury that even the most successful rogue trader would struggle to attain. The inquisition would spare no expense for the needs of its officers however and DeSade smiled with satisfaction at his place in the galaxy.
He had thought of sullying himself with destroying his sister but some small affection for the bitch remained in his heart and while he relished the thought of her death he did not relish the thought of having to face her in combat. That was for minions to undertake, most specifically his minion who awaited his pleasure in the very tunnels where his sister and her band of miscreants had fled to hide from the tau.
Benjamin's mood soured as he thought of the failure of the tau to eliminate her, the filthy xenos were incapable of getting even the most basic things right. If DeSade had not lured the Ultramarine fleet away it was doubtless the Tau force would have been decimated before they even made planetfall. No matter, the issue would only be cause for a slight delay on the schedule.
Bemjamin reached into a brocaded pocket under his opened jacket and took out a small com-bead device. He clicked it to establish a signal and issued his directives.
"Seena, I have new orders for you."
Although the link seemed clear there was no response. Bemjamin raised his eyebrows quizzically.
"Seena, are you listening? I have new order for you, reply."
Still nothing, there were two options, first, Seena was dead, unlikely given her skills for murder and stealth and her knack of surviving against the odds. Second, she had betrayed him.
The thought barely was worth contemplating, Seena was completely under Benjamin's control, she was his most trusted servant, and she was virtually his right hand.
She had not responded.
She had betrayed him
She must be found
She must be destroyed
She must be annihilated for her treachery.
Benjamin shrieked incoherently and threw the goblet across the room to smash against the panelled wall, ruining the priceless inlay with the sticky liquid.
"You will pay for your treachery you bitch, you owe me your life and now I shall take it." he screamed into the com bead hysterically.
Silence.
Benjamin Desade lurched out of the seat and stormed over to the cabin door to prepare a return to the planet's surface, he would unleash bloody wrath upon his sister, the tau, the locals and most especially against that selfish, rebellious minion of an assassin, Seena Dawnstar.
The pain was excruciating. Uthaniel clenched his teeth as the Cannoness cleaned his stomach wound in the pale light of an arbite glow lantern, he did not know whether the bullet that he had been shot with was poisoned somehow or whether the immediate infection was the result of the putrid gases that swirled around them. DeSade had removed the bullet, a small heavy lead slug, unremarkable in every way. His carapace armour had offered little resistance to it though, as if he had been wounded by fate, maybe it was yet another trial set by the Holy Emperor. Saint Belsarius had been wounded seven times in battle before leading his faithful to a heroic victory over the ork horde.
"I will be fine, vengeance rests for no faithful soldier." he snarled with vehemence. He pushed the Cannoness away gently and she stood back although concern was clear on her face. For a warrior woman of the Emperor Uthaniel thought she would be made of sterner stuff, he pitied her softness, holy war allowed no restraint and no forgiveness, only destruction of the enemies of mankind.
Vamis pulled himself upright to address the few dozen faithful that remained, Brother Arok, still clutching his shotgun, a pair of Adeptus Arbites who stood quietly like automatons, a single Sister of battle accompanying DeSade and a few handfuls of militia.
"My friends, faithful of the Emperor" he began. "We are nearing our destination and soon there shall be a reckoning between our righteous cause and the invading xenos who seek to subjugate us to their evil ways."
Vamis' head had begun to throb again, as it had before and during his vision.
"Soon we cease our descent into the depths of these tunnels and we will rise like the phoenix of old to climb through the honoured dead and then into the heart of our place of worship itself."
His vision began to swim and visions began to form.
"We will smite those who oppose us, death and damnation will reward those who turned against us and the streets will run with the blood of infidels."
He saw piles upon piles of mouldering corpses, blasted bodies reached for the sky looking for salvation, empty staring eyes of tau and men and gaping mouths chattering in their torment.
"We are become death the saviour, we are the reaper that comes to claim the spent lives of the enemies, to plunge them into the abyss from which there is no return, we are death and from our knives there is no escape...DEATH TO TAU AND TRAITORS!"
The survivors gave a ragged but hearty cheer. Vamis saw tears run down the cheeks of the faithful, DeSade stood, he features masked by the long shadows. Behind her, the shadows stirred. Uthaniel's eyes widened and he leapt forward, knocking the Cannoness aside as a monstrous hound leapt at her from the darkness. The snarling, twisted creature landed heavily amongst the survivors who stood shocked into inaction.
In a baying chorus of howls more of the beasts rushed toward them like apocalyptic messengers. Two or the milita were grabbed by the throat and tossed around to land torn and broken among the filth. Brother Arok delivered a point blank blast to the face of one of the monsters as it prepared to assault the Arch Deacon from behind and from the ground the Cannoness managed to save Arok in turn with a hurried blast from her boltgun that cleft a hound in two with its explosive force.
One of the arbites slammed his power maul into the back of a lunging beast, clobbering it to the ground where the militia nearby bludgeoned and stabbed it to death, bringing it down with a flurry of vicious but unskilled blows. As he did so his companion was knocked to the ground and savaged, his faceless helm muffling his own howls of pain as dagger like fangs tore through his belly armour and buried themselves in his gut, wrenching free his intestines.
Vamis staggered to his feet as the pain of his wound was forgotten and laid about him with Purity, a sweep clipped a hound behind its batwinged ear, shattering its deformed skull. Another hound shied away from the looping weapon and slunk back into the shadows.
And then it was quiet except for the heavy breathing of the survivors and the groans of the dying. Less than three minutes and their band of a few dozen was down to eighteen. Uthaniel had not seen all the deathblows fall but the results were painfully clear.
The adrenaline of battle subsided and the pain of his wound returned, it seeped blood, discoloured with pus and plasma and it stank of rot. Only divine grace would save Uthaniel now and only the most worthy martyrs were gifted with that. The quest must continue and vengeance must be wreaked soon, or Uthaniel would lay dead among the undeserving teeming millions whose faith in the Emperor had not matched their deeds.
Vamis was wounded and badly, Leanne could not understand how he could keep going. The attack by the mutant hounds had thinned their ranks but the Arch Deacon's zeal only served to inspire the faithful who followed the bobbing glow light carried by the remaining arbite through the darkness. Brother Arok caught up to Leanne where she marched in the line of pilgrims and pawed her sleeve for her attention. She raised her eyebrow at the assumed familiarity but in the darkness he would not have been able to see it.
"Cannoness, is the Arch Deacon hale?" he queried, his reedy voice quavering with uncertainty.
"He has been wounded Brother but his faith sustains him, he is an exemplary model of righteous and steadfast anger." replied Leanne in a stern matriarchal voice.
"Cannoness, no disrespect but I was a combat medic for twenty years and more in the Imperial guard and I ain't seen no mortal man that can twist and fight like that with his guts ready to fall out, faith or no, if the Arch Deacon don't stop moving soon his gonna be tripping over his intestines as he walks." the ratty little man was highly agitated and Leanne decided that she would need to heed his advice.
"Arch Deacon." she called through the gloom.
Vamis' silhouette turned in the gloom and waited for her to catch up.
When she reached him she looked at him straight in the eyes to speak.
She almost gasped in horror.
Vamis' eyes were bloodshot and filled with cataracts, his skin blotchy and grey, his hair had become brittle and his breath smelled of rotting flesh.
"Arch Deacon, you require assistance." Leanne managed.
The Arch Deacon smiled, exposing teeth that were covered in slimy film and gums that were clothed in weeping sores.
"Cannoness, my faith sustains me, fear not for my condition although I look fey to your eyes, it is merely the zeal that empowers me, driving me on to achieve our goal and obliterate the enemies of mankind. The conditions of the flesh matter little to those empowered by righteous indignation at the crimes of his enemies."
He smiled and gave a little chuckle and despite herself Leanne struggle not to vomit, she gagged it back and backed away.
"As you with Arch Deacon, if you require assistance I shall be waiting."
"Yes, yes you shall my child." Vamis said in a voice that was rough with phlegm.
The hounds returned to her lair and Seena saw they had not escaped unscathed. Several were missing, presumably they were dead although it mattered little in the greater scheme of things. It was disconcerting though that they had not apparently completed their task as he enhanced hearing could still detect the faint voices of the human refugees in the not so distant tunnels. She knew that she had the ability to kill every single one of the bothersome pests but wanted to attend to other matters. Still it looked like it was unavoidable.
Seena swirled a betaloned finger in the blood bowl as she considered her actions. She had again ignored Benjamin's squawking communication, he mattered little now that she had begun the final phases of her plan. The war between the xenos and Imperium would release energies of the dead and dying which her bowl would capture, enabling her to open the gates to the warp and provide a highway from the Inevitable City to this plane, this planet. It would be enveloped in screaming tides of daemons and for her gift Tzeentch would reward her with ascension. As a princess of daemons she would be immortal and would be able to take her revenge on the Eldar who had haunted her family since her grandmother had found the Vessel of Souls.
Sister Amiin was tired of waiting, they had been here in this bloody clearing for almost an entire day with no guidance from either the Cannoness, the Cardinal or that damned inquisitor. Amiin did not care if he was the Canonesses' brother, he was an idiot, a beauracrat and a liar, Amiin could feel it in her bones. Whatever they were supposed to be waiting for it sure wasn't on its way here and by the Emperor there was a war going on, at least there would be if Amiin found out that weasly little rat of an Inquisitor had prevented them from protecting the holy cathedral alongside the canoness, she would burn that miscreant to ashes if he had and his bloody inquisitorial authority be damned.
"Sisters, we return to the city and to our Cannoness; I fear we have been led on a fool's errand and I for one am not in a mood for idiocy, board the rhinos, we depart immediately." Amiin commanded, her husky voice edged with anticipation.
