Chapter 10
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"Are you a Damned Idiot?! I made you! I made am the one who built your network and I'M the one whose put you and your twisted little freaks in place for your damned plot."
"NO! Don't you dare take that tone with ME! Pretending you have things under control, you clearly don't have anything under control! The SORORITAS got to Grothard, and if he was nosy like a idiot he's got something connecting us. And might I remind you IF WE are connected then YOU are the one damned, while I can slip by relatively unscathed."
"And you're certain..."
"So the timescale is being accelerated. We need to act before the investigation starts making the connections."
"No, doing that..."
"Will you listen to me you ideologue! If you just claim the investigators it'll..."
"Yes, subterfuge is coming into play here. My spy in the Arbites will sabotage the investigation as best he can. Meanwhile you need to start cleaning shop, the better a front you put forth for the foreseeable future the easier time we will have as the Warlords either give us their support, or withhold their support from our enemies."
"Yes, everything will proceed as we have prepared."
Line Break
Vylerine eagerly awoke from her rest. Excitement rushed the Sororita's prayers, something she could already feel her guilt eating away at her for, and thus she chose to don a sackcloth tunic to wear under her garbs. The rough material bringing her discomfort and even pain under her usual garments, would be penance enough.
However, even suitably dressed the Canoness couldn't hide her excitement from a experienced eye. She couldn't keep her excited haste from accelerating her past the Adepts and Acolytes still putting the finishing touches to nearly a year's worth of labor. Indeed, a year since the Heir-Elect of Governor Hector had opened up the resources that the Canoness needed to upgrade her mission facility to a full Commandry. And with the full support of the planet's cults including the fervent support of the Church of the Divine Will, the Commandry had been completed within the year.
The grounds had been expanded from the small shrine that had stood before. The main structure had been expanded into a single square complex with the original main door now being the entry to the Commandry's main courtyard. The main building now stood three stories tall, with still another story under construction. The Fourth Story would house the main battlements, complete with servo-skull operated Anti-Air, and automated Heavy Bolters to screen any incoming hostiles.
Beyond the main structure was open space for nearly fifty meters in each direction, at the end of the clear ground was the first wall. Three Stories tall the main wall was the main defense of the compound. Thick, and covered with automated Bolter arrays and servitor mounted multi-meltas, and entirely within the protective barrier of the shield protecting the facility, the wall would be nearly impenetrable to any of the forces currently on the planet effectively allowing but a few Sororitas to hold the compound by themselves. Lastly at the bottom of the hill and standing only slightly taller than the main wall stood the outer wall. While the wall was thin, it marked the outer most reach of the main wall's defenses and blinded enemies without from seeing the defenses within.
However the structure meant little to Vylerine a fortress was just a fortress to the Sororitas and next to the value which was the devoted of the Emperor and the purity of faith the building meant nothing. No the young Canoness was instead reduced to being little better than a child on Emperor's day by the truth of what this morning brought. Today the Sororitas of of the Commandry were due to arrive nearly three hundred sisters would soon crowd this sanctified land filling it with the echoing sounds countless hymns and devoted service. To be surrounded by true sororitas once again, sisters who understood the field of battle and the power of the divine Emperor filled Vylerine with excitement.
With a energetic pace Vylerine made her way outside the fortress, personally overlooking the field she and her sisters, along with the serfs and devoted servants sent by the Ecclesiastical cults of the planet, had cleared for the coming dropship and it's precious cargo of Sororitas. Only fifteen meters distant from the clearing the expectant Canoness used a small mirror, one she often used for a multitude of purposes ranging from medicae or checking around corners during particularly lethal engagements, to the occasional bout of vanity. At this moment the vanity was allowed to win as Vylerine used the mirror to inspect herself.
Her armor, covered in golden scripture and gold inlaid artistic depictions of the iconography of the Imperial Saints and the Emperor's loyal sons, gleamed in the light. The various purity seals on the armor, their parchments covered in both unintelligible Lingua-Technis and divine scriptures, drifted slightly in the gentle wind sweeping the open rock filled fields. While the items best denoting the Canoness rank held by Vylerine, the Mantle of Ophilia embedded into her pauldron and her blessed cloak, struck a imposing image behind her.
After a few short moments of impatient waiting Vylerine could sense a familiar presence join at her left side. The cold brooding of Vylerine's Palatine, Chrana, was palpable, the air of seriousness radiating off the fully armored woman making her easily the most recognizable presence Vylerine had ever felt at her side.
"Took you long enough Canoness. Though you do make a more dignified and pious pose than what Bellolla claimed you would." The second commented from her Canoness' side.
"As if I would ever stoop so lowly as to give the wrong first impression to our covenant. Though speaking of Bellolla, where is she? I would have thought she would have also liked to have taken to greeting our new sisters." Was Vylerine's dignified response, after the Canoness had taken a moment to brush off Chrana's comment.
"Bellolla wanted to inspect the compound. The gardens, chapel and defenses needed a personal touch so she volunteered. She should be here before the dropship arrives though."
"Actually I am here now!" A risen voice declared as Bellolla raced to her canoness' side, her armored robes slightly marked with dirt from the Mission's gardens. Her short and soft gasps of breath revealing the hurried and exhausting pace their Sister must have been using. The sight of the Brown haired sister gave Vylerine a smile, as the woman's typical almost constant smile was instead replaced by a light panting.
"Careful Bellolla, if you give our sisters a impression of lax rules I will have to punish you severely." Vylerine joked.
"If you were going to come out dressed like that you shouldn't have come at all." Chrana's sneer could be felt through her helmet.
"Leave her be Chrana, today is a day of celebration and success. She holds right to be here alongside us." Vylerine admonished the stern sister.
"Understood my Cannoness, if you command i'll flagellate myself in repentance tonight." Chrana stated, her polished armor giving away nothing of what the sister might have been thinking at the moment.
"Minimally Chrana, there wasn't enough flaw with your logic to warrant anything more than minor reflection. Besides-" Vylerine's response was cut short as a large ship broke the sky. The vessel was massive, a work of Imperial might more than capable of carrying the three hundred Sisters of the Sororitas, and entirely suitable for carrying the sisters, the Mission's vehicles and the entire reliquary.
The pressure displacement from the carriers engine thrust stirred up a great wind. The buffeting pressures causing Vylerine's cape to fly back, almost pulling her back a step. Beside the Cannoness, Chrana and Bellolla both shielded themselves from a dense dirt cloud.
Beyond the dust the vessel began it's landing procedure. Mechanical legs lowered and bore the weight of the mighty vessel. As it's forward ramp descended, facing toward the Cannoness and her companions, the dust was broken. Immediately Vylerine could see the sisters inside gathering into orderly rows with their Superiors standing in-front of them, and before all them stood the Sister Hospitaller of the Sororitas, her medical garb easily distinguishing her from the others.
It was only after the Sororitas began marching down the ramp did the Cannoness begin to suspect something was amiss. The faces were too young, the Sisters movements while certainly parade ready did not in any, but the Hospitaller, hold themselves with the certainty nor awareness of a veteran of war.
It was only after the Canoness laid eyes on the first of the 'superiors' that she realized the reality. She had been sent not some or even many of the newest Sororitas of the Order, rather she had been assigned them all, and the first face, the first eyes she could meet were a grave reminder of her past... of the one sin she could never forgive herself for even if the Emperor himself had.