Had I been of the more sensitive kind, I might have fainted when the Inquisitor revealed her true identity. But I was, and had always been, a practical woman. I opened my mouth to reply.
Only to leave it hanging open.
The sky was… the sky was no longer there. Or it was different, in a way that defied understanding. I gazed into an impossible mass of sickly clouds, teeming with unnatural energies, like a veil cast across the night sky. The moon leered at us like some kind of a predator. I shook with revulsion, placing my hands on my temples. It didn't feel good, looking at the sky. But somehow, it just… captured your attention.
"Don't look at the sky for too long," Lena warned. "Something terrible has happened. We've lost sight of Terra. We lost Karen… we lost our psyker in the backlash. I fear that Cadia has fallen. Abaddon's Black Crusade has succeeded. We are cut off. No doubt that is the reason for the rebellion on this planet, too…"
Cadia. Psykers. My vision began to spin. Nausea followed soon after. Cadia was the gold standard everything else was compared to in the Guard. It was the symbol of the entire organization, more than that, it embodied its spirit. And now… now Cadia had fallen? What hope was left, then?
"But all hope is not lost." The Inquisitor stood up and began to pace. "We can still resist. There's one thing we could try. It has to do with the reason why I landed on this planet in the first place. And it has to do with you."
Lena flicked her platinum hair, cut into a bob. The gesture seemed irritated. "The only problem is that we don't know anything for certain. Tell me, guardswoman. What happened to you during the Rathalas incident? Who – or what – befell on you during those few fateful hours?"
I took a deep breath. For calm. I wished I had something more potent – like a stiff drink – but I told myself I'd gotten through worse. In hindsight, it was comically false, but at the time it seemed to help me. Even if just a little. I thought back to that night three days ago.
"We were ordered to comb the Rathalas foothills for rebel encampments." It had been an intensive search, and fruitless for the better part of the day. Until my unit stumbled onto a tunnel entrance, cleverly hidden under foliage.
"We found an entrance. It didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before. Strange markings covered the walls." And then…
"We voxed headquarters for support. Another identical entrance had been found elsewhere." We waited at the entrance for a full hour until we heard the distant rumble of the Chimera troop transport vehicles and the Salamander fire-tanks.
"And then, we entered the tunnels in force."
I could still remember the eerie silence that hung over those tunnels. Our footsteps had made a frightening amount of noise, though I could not pinpoint why exactly I was unnerved. Maybe I'd known, deep down, that something that felt so ancient could never have been a good thing to disturb.
"And then we saw it. A faint, green light behind the corner."
Lena interrupted me. "A green light?"
"Everything went wrong after we saw it. Our forward scouts went silent. Later, we found their vox-transmitters. There was no blood on them, not even a single scratch. Then –"
I shuddered. "They came. I don't know what they are. I barely even saw them. All I saw was the green light. I turned. I ran. For backup! My unit followed me." They had been just as terrified as I. And they'd been the ones to stay behind.
"They sacrificed themselves to seal one of the entrances. I escaped alive."
A numb silence followed my final sentence. Lena was the one to break it.
"So I was right. This is a Tomb World."
I turned to stare at her. "What?"
"The source of that green light is an ancient race called the Necrons. They've lain dormant for aeons – but lately, for whatever reason, more and more of them have been awakened from their mechanical slumber."
The same man who'd spoken earlier, in the prison, stepped up. I got my first good look at him – he was tall, wearing a long, dark coat that extended down to his knees, and there was some kind of a mechanical contraption stuck to his face that made him look half-machine. "This method of exposition is not efficient. We aim to make sure that these Necrons never awaken."
I blinked. "What?"
"And giving the poor woman even more of a shock is more efficient, then, honored Magos?" The Inquisitor retorted.
"She has proven capable of handling elevated stress levels."
"People don't work like one of your machines, Lumiosa."
The Magos nodded slowly and retreated a few steps back, some unseen machines whirring within his cloaks. There was something eerily inhuman about the gesture. "As you say, Inquisitor."
"I apologize on Magos Lumiosa' behalf, guardswoman. Or Nix. I suppose we might as well be on first-name terms. You're a part of my retinue now, after all."
"Y-your retinue?"
"As it stands, yes. I'm sorry to involve you, but I have no choice. I need every helping hand I can get at this point."
I looked over the rest of the group, and noticed their expressions. They were wary, and pained. Some of them were wounded.
"But doing this will save people?"
"If we succeed."
"Then I'm in."
The Inquisitor looked at me with an expression of the utmost astonishment on her face. Then she laughed. Though her features were rather pleasant, that laugh was almost terrifying.
"You thought you had a choice?"