IX
DANCING IN THE DARK, II
"Anyone who goes around in heavy armor is just asking for attention."
- Chief Scout Solleya Tir, Koracrian 22nd Regiment

Lucjan slipped the accessor over the panel, and the door slid open with a light hiss. With his hellgun raised, he stepped in, sweeping over the entire room with his preysense vision. Raege's room was entirely devoid of activity.
He lowered his hellgun, and, after glancing over the room one last time, kneeled on the floor. "All groups, report in." He said, watching the doorway intently.

Ctibor turned and cracked off another round at a Skitarii as it took aim at them. The augmented soldier simply fell over, and was quickly replaced by another of its kind.
Meanwhile, Raimo was busily working on unlocking the door panel to the auxiliary stairwell, when Lucjan called.
"Team Raimo here, we're at full strength but we've got Skitarii deploying against us from the inner genetorium!"

"Svyato and Rsamly here," Rsamly said, looking down the hall; no activity. "We're both okay, but we haven't got anything going on. Just a bunch of rooms full of sleeping technicians. We're heading up to the higher lounges now."

Lucjan waited a minute for a message from Hran, and got nothing. "Hran, how are you and Szir?"
There was no response.
"Hran? Szir? You hear me?"
He began to grow agitated.
"What about you, Torsten? What have you found in the lounges?"
There was no response from him, either.
"Team, Torsten, Hran and Szir have been rendered unresponsive."
"So we assume they've been incapacitated." Svyato said.
"Exactly." Lucjan replied. "Team, I'm going to contact our little friend, give me a second."
He put his hand to the dial on the side of his helmet, and flipped it over to the second vox channel. "Platos, this is Lu."
"Shit, what do you need?"
"Bad time?"
"Yes."
"Alright." Lucjan said. "I need to know if there's any hazardous stock right now in the storeholds. I've got a team going down there to investigate right now."
"Let's see... we've got a few crates of high-yield explosives down in the first hold."
"Anything worse?"
"The new drive core for the main power plant came in earlier. It's being held in the hazard-stock. I don't suggest messing with that."
"What kind of drive is that?"
"You didn't know? It's nuclear."
"Alright, we'll steer clear of it. See you." With the conversation over, Lucjan switched his channel back. "Raimo, head up to the store-holds, and into the hazardous materials stock. I want you to rig the nuclear drive core in there to explode in four hours."
"A drive core? As in for a genetorium plant? Captain, I don't think the Tech-Priesthood keeps those things running when they're out of use."
"You know how they work, so get them working. Use your det-charges if you need to. I want this place to be vapor. Nobody finds out we were here, but everybody finds out there was an accident."
"Yes, Sir."
With that, Captain Lucjan sat and waited.

The guard by the door saluted as Raege, who had taken a moment in the hall to put her boots on, marched in.
The Navy Supervisor was waiting for her. "Commissar Raege." He deadpanned.
Raege nodded. "I need to know what's going on, and now. Pardon the lack of a salute, but I'm in a hurry."
"Very well." The supervisor said, and turned to the operations pit; all the different monitor stations were dead, and the entire chamber was lit by the same red gloom which filled the stairwells. Several operators scurried about aimlessly, lacking any real direction. "Power died a short while ago, and that is all that we have evidence of. We have yet to identify a cause, but we suspect it to be an attack. We recently received an automatic alert from the Enginseers that they had activated the servo-Skitarii down in the genetorium to deal with a problem, and that was the last we heard from them. Since the Skitarii aren't normally mobilized unless there is a danger, it's clear we have an invasion."
"All guards are out hunting for Orks, yes? Why not call them back?"
"We cannot." The supervisor responded. "Our vox amplifiers are presently dead. They are running completely unaware of our plight until their next scheduled check-in time."
"When is that?" Raege asked.
"Another half-hour. It will take them at least four hours to return to the Magnus Prima."
Typical bureaucratic nonsense, Raege decided. "I need one of your guards to escort me down to my room."
"I cannot spare any more men." The supervisor said, turning to face Raege again. "You are able to make it on your own, are you not?"
"I am, but that's not the point."
"There is no point."
"My regimental psyker has informed me that the invaders are here to kill me."
"Your psyker?" The supervisor, in an uncanny display of emotion, raised an eyebrow.
"She's quite trustworthy. And say she is right. I can assure you that my master won't be pleased should I be killed here..."
The supervisor twitched; he understood who this "master" was and what angering him meant. "Very well." He looked to the guard who escorted Raege in. "Boris, escort her to her suite."
Boris clicked his boots' heels together and saluted, then followed Raege out. When they exited into the stairwell, Boris gave Blaske instructions to watch over the door.
Once they had left, the supervisor turned and looked over to the security-communications officer. "Platos, have we received word from Aris and Lon?"
Platos pulled his headset from his ears. "Ah, yes. They just finished a search of the lounge, and are going down to the storehouse to search for any thefts."
"Alright." The supervisor nodded, and returned to his pointless vigil.

Boone sat, clinging to her nerves only by the aid of Michael. For what had to have been a half-hour, they had continued to communicate casually in spite of the lack of lighting.
When, however, a new clatter arose the lesser psyker was even further disturbed. She recognized its pattern and intensity as that of several people climbing stairs.
Michael, I think there's someone coming in here...
Don't worry, Alice, I'm sure they're just here to check up on you.
Nevertheless, Alice was uneasy. She became restless in her seat.
Michael, what if-
She yelped; she had felt a hand upon her shoulder.
What if? Michael echoed, expecting Boone to continue.
H hey hey there, tiny.
Boone turned her head to be met by the red glow of Lancaster's eyes.
"Oh... hello, Jonquil." Boone said, smiling sincerely. "Are you here to check on me?"
Actually, I I need to get you ou out of here here. Lancaster replied.
"Is something the matter?"
Boone jumped at the sound of a door being slammed open.
Y yes, there is is. I would ould appreciate it if you spoke to me only through telepathy epathy right now ow, though ough. Lancaster answered, adding a sensation of urgency to her thoughts.
Is there some danger? Boone asked.
Quiet iet, I'm finding ing out now now...
Lancaster reached out with her mind. She saw all things in manners beyond those of shape; she saw the patterns of four souls, furious clouds whose violent inclinations marked them as a deep red.
Four violence-hungry ungry men draw aw near. Lancaster sent to her lesser counterpart.I know who they're with ith. They're here to kill ILL you and and me.
In the darkness, Boone's eyes grew wide with terror. In despair, she turned to the container which hid Michael.
Michael, what do we do? There's a group of people here intent on murdering us! She asked, lying her head against the side of the box.
There was no response for several seconds.
Boone.
Michael?
I won't let any harm come to you, I promise that. Listen very carefully to me, Boone. The assassin commanded. Get up. Approach the far end of my container.
Boone complied. She slipped along to the far side - the access code panel was lit up.
Now, Boone, I want you to enter the series of numbers I'm about to give you, into that panel...

As the last member of the squad came through the door, Raimo slammed it shut. He quickly glanced over the room; the towers of crates in the storehouse were defying his preysense mask. "Rur, seal it." He commanded, pointing at the door, and the trooper obeyed, producing from his kit a lastorch. As Rur fired the tool at the door, he motioned for his partner Kordim to feed solder into the path of the beam. Raimo and Ctibor stood by with their guns trained on the door, fully prepared to shoot at whatever might attempt to pass through. It was too late when they detected the presence approaching them.
Michael's claw tore through Raimo's carapace instantly; the injectors along the back of his gauntlet pumped forth poisons into the squad leader, rendering him, in the span of a heartbeat, able only to produce a gurgling noise. Ctibor, panicking, began to fire madly at the assassin, succeeding only in hitting his leader's body. Sliding Raimo off of his claw, Michael held the body overhead and then threw it at the Kordim and Rur, toppling them over under the agonized cadaver.
Ctibor attempted to fire again at the daemon which had killed his ally, but he had expended all of his ammunition between the Skitarii and his attack against Raimo. Backing up slowly, he dropped his hellgun and let it dangle by his side while he pulled out his sidearm - in the meager span of time it took him to do so, Michael, releasing a banshee's scream, materialized a fat-bladed power knife from its sheath on his back, and he leapt onto his victim. He drove the powered blade between Ctibor's ribs, then tore downwards, sundering the entire front of Ctibor's torso.
Michael turned his head to Kordim and Rur, who were recovering from the first assault. He threw his power blade at Rur, managing to cut through his chin into his neck, killing him as well. Kordim attempted to run, palming over his armor for one of his grenades, but Michael leapt at him as though he were a predatory creature, pinning him to the ground. With Kordim helpless, the assassin began quartering his victim's body...

"Would you know anything about that Kinog trooper?" Raege asked as she and Boris descended the stairwell.
"Yarn Blaske? He's a filthy little shit, I can tell you that much." Boris answered. "He seems to be under the impression he can get away with the vile crap he's pulled."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm going to guess he told you the story of how he and his squad weren't present when his regiment died off. He told that to me, too." Boris explained. "Turns out he's the only survivor. He apparently was supposed to be on the lookout for Orks but made a break for it when he first caught sight of them. His unit bit the dust because he apparently failed to report it in."
"So he lied to me..."
"I'm afraid so. He just up and sacrificed hundreds of people to save his own hide. There is not an ounce of regret in that man, I think."
"Why is he still alive?" Raege asked. "Are there no other commissars in attendance here?"
"I'm afraid you're the only one here right now. Besides, we don't really have definite proof he abandoned, since we don't know what his final orders were... but we sure as hell know he did it."
"I see..." Raege began to tighten her fists. She stopped at the next landing: Floor 201. "This is it."
"Alright. Didn't you say they were coming after you? Why are you coming back down here if that's the case?"
"My weapons." Raege answered, simply. "I'm a commissar. They cannot strip me of my wargear, but I've got it all in my room."
"I see. Plan on doing some fighting, huh?"
"Yes, I do."
"I see." The guard smiled, and hefted his shotgun. "Then allow me to be of help to you." With that, Boris opened the door for the Commissar, allowed her to pass through before he did, and led the way for her.

At a gentle pace, weapons raised, Lockwood and Jacobi snuck down the halls, searching for a stairwell. The Commissar's room was the best place to find her, and so it was their destination... their opponents surely knew this as well, which made it all the more pressing to get there first.
Lockwood was completely in-tune with every stimulus which presented itself to her senses; a life devoted to protecting the labyrinthine halls, buildings and streets of Sorn, a Kasr infamous for frequent incursions by Chaos Marines and lesser heretics had burned an awareness of her surroundings into her mind – she needed it in Sorn, lest she be caught off-guard by an intruder on her often-lonely patrols.
As they neared a fork in the hallway, she heard footsteps. The source was close. She looked back to Jacobi, and nodded her head in the direction of the sound. The two silently hugged against the wall as they neared its edge. Lockwood jumped out of hiding as soon as she was ready, her pistol held steady.
She was greeted by a startled yelp when she came around, and the thud of a body hitting the floor. She realized the sound was more akin to a frightened scream, and immediately recognized the source.
"Grin? What are you doing?" Lockwood asked, shining her flash-torch on the upset guardsman.
Kas Grin stared up at her with a look which suggested he had urinated himself in shock. "Major! Oh, oh, Major Lockwood, I'm glad to see you!" He said, breathless… or rather, attempting to sound breathless.
"What's with you, kid? You were in critical condition just a few months ago, and now you want to get shot again?" Lockwood joked.
"I'm sorry, Major Lockwood!" Kas said in an attempt to maintain his drama. "I let the enemy get away!"
"Enemy?" Jacobi asked from behind the two.
"It was a pair of guys. They were definitely not part of any group here, they were wearing really expensive-looking white armor."
"Well well, so there are more." Jacobi said, appreciating the weight of the stolen hellgun.
"Kas, calm down, you did good to hide." Lockwood said, kneeling beside the grunt and patting his shoulder. "Now please, keep out of our way. Go see if you can wake up some other members of the team."
"Actually, that reminds me." Jacobi announced, shifting his weight to one leg, looking around. "We've made a hell of a lot of noise. You'd think some of the people in their rooms on this floor would come out to see what's up."
Lockwood stood up. She peered down the hall; there was no sign of activity; no sound, no opening doors. "You're right. What's going on?"
"I know!" Kas piped up. The two looked down at him.
The uneasy trooper brought himself to his feet. "The two guys I was eating with from the Malfi regiments got called out for some big Ork hunt. Hell, it looked like everyone outside our unit left for it."
"That's gotta be the dumbest idea I've ever heard!" Lockwood protested. "I know the Guard command isn't particularly the brainiest at times, but they can't possibly have been stupid enough to send out every available unit for one job!"
"Maybe they left us to handle security." Jacobi suggested, giving a hand-gesture in the dark.
"They didn't give us our weapons back, though." Lockwood countered.
"Good point."
"Come on, something reeks here. Let's go find Raege." Lockwood began to march off down the hall; she was irritated, Jacobi noted. "Kas, you're coming with us."
"Y-yes'm!" The guardsman chirped, and hurried along behind her.
"What are we going to do when we find her?" Jacobi asked, following.
"I don't know, we're probably going to watch after her for a bit." Lockwood replied, not looking back.
"What about the others? Aren't they in danger?"
"Probably, but let's hope they can handle themselves." Lockwood said. "Judging from the size of their groups, there aren't that many of these guys. Probably a smaller force, an infiltration team. They might have been waiting here for days before we arrived."
"Something doesn't add up though..." Jacobi muttered to himself, and continued along.

"I have a question." Raege announced.
"You're clear to ask, Commissar!" Boris replied, so loudly that the Commissar winced at his lack of caution - she immediately regretted asking him anything.
"It sounded like the Adeptus Mechanicus isn't too informative of their work here."
"You noticed that?" Boris cracked a smile. "Yeah, they really aren't too sociable with the Guard. I hear they didn't enjoy speaking with the original owners of the spire, either."
"It doesn't sound like a pleasant relationship."
"You got that right." Boris chuckled. "There'll be occasions where the Mechanicus will up and make demands for something, or send up Skitarii to guard a room, and they never give a reason why. The only news we get from them is a rather courteous announcement of shipment details. The one tech-priest I've seen was threatening to stop sending even that because the generals were prying for info about the security level down in the genetorium… and the… rest of the building the Tech-Priesthood has blocked off."
"That can't be healthy."
"Yeah, you know how those cogboys are." Boris gestured for Raege to stop as they approached a turn; he looked around the corner, and then continued along cheerily. Raege rolled her eyes at the uselessness of his cautious movement in light of his incautious speaking. "They bring in some crazy shit, though. The other day, they shipped in a nuke."
"What?"
"Not a weapon, really, but some sort of crazy mini… bomb-thing… that they use for power."
"You mean like a generator core."
Boris snapped his fingers in a sudden fit of remembrance. "Yeah, that's the word!"
He stopped abruptly to check over a turn in their path, but Raege lightly slapped the back of his tunic. "Don't bother. You've made enough noise to register us on a handheld auspex from a mile away. If there's anyone hiding on this floor, they know we're here."
"Sorry, Mam, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't bother being sorry." Raege said, sharply. Deciding her tone was too harsh, she continued: "It can't be helped. Let's just get to my things."
"Ay, Commissar."

Lucjan, in his impatience, stood from his hiding place and began to look over the Commisssar's effects: Old group-holos of colleagues, and portraits of individuals of unidentifiable importance; petty commendation medals, seemingly inadequate for a Commissar of the prowess Raege exhibited; worn letters dated decades-old.
Lucjan had a perverse appreciation for the inner workings of others - their motivations and anxieties, hopes and fears, friends and enemies… it seemed to him something alien: The environment he had grown up in was one of equilibrium, and while his co-workers frequently succumbed to the exposure to life outside the Teutonic Realm, he had always better-appreciated the peaceful existence underlined by violence which had been drilled into him. Nevertheless, he ate up the details which his briefing dossiers lacked on individuals, those profoundly personal materials which made them unique.
He reveled in his victims' lives.
The auspex built into Lucjan's mask alerted him to movements outside; two individuals approaching. His sudden recollection of the device's presence in his eyepiece brought up a faint feeling of guilt for being the only one privileged with a motion-tracker, but it was not something he could dwell on. He took up a position in hiding behind some pieces of furniture, positioned well-enough that he could not be seen immediately upon entering; should two individuals come into his field of view the second person would have no way of escaping after his first companion died, as he'd be too far from the door.
The door did slide open a few seconds later. The subjects were quite talkative.
"Here we are!" Said one. Lucjan could tell from the thermal image his mask gave him that this man was stocky, and was clearly armed with a shotgun. The weapon made him a priority target, he noted. "You need some light, Mamzel?" The first individual continued.
The second target individual stepped into sight from behind the cover of the first. Lucjan grew tense at the sight of this on. Female, with a silhouette matching that of…
"Yes, please." She said.
Commissar Raege!
Boris handed Raege his flash-torch. The two stepped further into the room, and Boris unknowingly drew close to Lucjan's hiding spot.
Lucjan leapt to his feet; the jangling of his armor and equipment brought him the attention of both Boris and Raege. Boris immediately decided to shoot, but before he could bring his shotgun to bear a lasround slapped him across the face, and he fell to the floor with much of his lower jaw burnt away and blood oozing from the half-cauterized wound.
Raege dropped the flash-torch and uselessly dived to the ground, and slid into hiding to the side of her bed. In this time, Lucjan could have easily shot her, but strangely, he did not.
"Come out, Commissar." He ordered in a thickly-accented voice, his voice bearing the light scratching quality of his mask. "I do not intend to kill you."
Raege remained silent. She realized she had gone to cover by her suitcase, within which was hidden her autopistol.
Lucjan unlatched his mask as a gesture of goodwill, as though that were possible after killing a man. "I have orders to keep you alive. My superiors wish to speak with you." He said, his voice completely clear.
"And who would your superiors be?" Raege barked, daring to respond. "The Knights?"
Lucjan paused for a moment and considered this; the room may have been bugged. If he acknowledged that, then the Knight-Order would be stigmatized. "I cannot answer that." He said. "I can, however, guarantee that no harm will come to you."
The dim light of the discarded flash-torch provided ample illumination for Lucjan to see Raege stand up out of hiding.
"Okay…" She said, calmly, and took a few steps forward, her autopistol clutched so Lucjan could not see it.
He allowed her to step closer, then she stopped, as though awaiting his orders. Carelessly, Lucjan began to strap his face mask back on.
The first thing he saw with his preysenses back on was Raege lifting the gun to his face. He instinctively brought his arm up to shield his face as she fired, and the plated guard around his forearm was pelted with bullets.
Raege immediately darted out, and Lucjan, biting through the pain of the several bullet wounds his carapace had failed to stop, gave chase, struggling to finish putting on his mask as he ran.

Gunfire sounded from upstairs; Svyato quickly turned his head. "Hey, did you hear that?"
"Yes, I did." Rsamly said hastily, and motioned for Svyato to follow as he began to run. They needed to get upstairs.
As they hurried down one pathway, however, they noticed activity; doors opening on both sides of the hall, individuals either stumbling out blindly or shining flash-torches down the length of the hall. Moments later, someone, surprised, shouted to the two assassins.
"Shit! Shit!" Rsamly cried out through his teeth, and fired at the man, killing him and temporarily scaring the others; taking advantage of this distraction, Rsamly turned down another path, urging his partner along with. However, as he started down this way, a trio appeared down that hall; they seemed to be armed, which was confirmed when a bullet whizzed past Rsamly's head.
"Other way!" Rsamly shouted to Svyato as he fired back with his hellgun. "We have no time to waste with them!"
Several guardsmen however, impeded their original path, and a few among them had improvised for weapons with blunt objects and concealed knives. Growling in anger, Rsamly fired into their number, killing several and scattering the others, then he and Svyato hurried by, bashing aside anyone who got in their way, firing back as they rushed along.
Lockwood and Jacobi, with Kas Grin desperately trying to keep close to the two, followed after, hurrying through the gathering mob, shouting to the confused soldiers.

As Raege came to a turn, she spun around and fired again into the darkness, forcing Lucjan to duck into cover in a doorway. When he popped back out, Lucjan immediately opened fire on Raege again, narrowly missing her leg as she ran around a corner; cursing, Lucjan pursued her.
Briefly remembering his team, he placed his hand to his comm-bead's control on the side of his mask. "Pursuing Raege." He quickly said, then returned his full focus to the chase.
Raege fired back again, keeping Lucjan from properly aiming at her. The TASO captain persisted, however. He stuck his hellgun out of cover, pointed, and fired. One beam came so close that Raege ducked by reaction. A final burst from her pistol, however, hit Lucjan's weapon, shaking his grip on it to the point hit slipped from his hands. He recovered it immediately and hopped from cover to shoot at her, only to despair when he realized the Commissar's shot had torn apart the focusing array. Angry, he tore the capacitor from his backpack and threw aside the now-useless weapon, and gave chase to Raege once more as he unlatched the holster of the Prince of Pistols, his Hecuter 9/5.
His aim bouncing with his step, he began to fire the monstrous autopistol. Raege, upon hearing the first few loud, powerful booms the weapon, immediately turned down the next corridor, hoping to distance herself from Lucjan. However, the passageway led straight to a dead end – lit by red emergency glow-panels was a large, powered bulkhead. The only problem was that it was not receiving power.
Raege took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself down. She slipped out of her great coat, and whirled around, raising her fists into a fighting stance. During her years at the Schola Progenium, she was taught how to fight without a gun; she whispered thanks to the Emperor, that she still practiced unarmed combat.
Lucjan came barreling along then. As he slid along the floor to turn, Raege brought her leg up in an arcing kick which connected with the side of his head, sending him reeling to the side; she had intended to hit his hand, but this was just as well. Still focused on disarming him, she grabbed Lucjan's arm as he attempted to swing it around to shoot; when he fired the shots uselessly zoomed past Raege's side, and she, desperate for an opening, noticed that he had a knife stored on his belt. With a swift motion, she tore it from its sheath, and brought it down on his wrist. It had a much greater effect than she had expected – the blade made a clean cut into his hand, digging deeper than any cut like that should have. Lucjan yelped, dropping his gun. Raege quickly kicked it to the side.
Growling with his anguish, Lucjan stumbled backwards into the main hallway, clutching the gruesome wound, cursing in a tongue which held no ring of Gothic. Completely furious, ignoring the urge to continue gripping onto the injury, he uncovered his right hand. With his still-useful left, he reached around and drew his saber from its scabbard on his back.

Svyato and Rsamly quickly realized they could not outrun their pursuers. Nevertheless, Rsamly decided they needed to keep moving.
Their flight took a turn for the worse, however, when they came to a fork in the path. There was no sign of where Lucjan had gone.
"Split up!" Rsamly ordered, looking to Svyato and pointing off in one direction. As Svyato began to move, however, a hail of bullets and lasfire pounded against him; the sheer volume tore into his armor, and by the time he hit the floor he was dead. Rsamly immediately began to sprint down his path, not even attempting to help his partner.

Lucjan swung at Raege; she slid aside, however, and stabbed at him. Lucjan, however, swiftly parried upward, and as the knife flew from Raege's hand he kneed her in the gut, then smashed his armored shin against her face when she reeled forward, in a display of amazing flexibility in the bulk of his armor.
Raege fell to the side, and Lucjan immediately came at her again, piercing her arm with his saber while she attempted to stand up again, crushing the bone with a sickening snap. She was the one to cry out this time, as Lucjan pulled the blade from the wound, bringing with it a rush of fresh blood. She clutched the injury, and Lucjan brought the blade before her face - a final gesture, declaring himself victor. Raege, bruised, her nose and lip bleeding along with her arm, could only sit and await his next move.
The lights came on at that moment, all down the hall, and Raege was disoriented as her eyes adjusted; Lucjan was, of course, unaffected. What truly served to capture their attention, was a racket at the end of the hallway, which distracted both Lucjan and the defeated Raege. Lucjan spotted Lockwood and Jacobi coming down the hall, shouting at him.
Raege immediately took this opportunity, and kicked Lucjan's feet from under him in the second he was not looking. The TASO Captain slipped and fell, while Raege rolled over to the side.
Lucjan was peppered with gunfire as he returned to his feet, but was not immediately dead. Persistent, he attempted to crawl into cover, trailing blood over the small distance he managed to go before a final gunshot from Lockwood killed him.
Shaken, Raege got to her feet. The Major jogged up beside her. "Shit, Raege!" She exclaimed. "I mean, Sir! Oh, forget it, you look like fucking shit!"
"Yeah," Raege grunted, wiping at the blood running down from her nose "yeah, I feel like shit."
Lockwood laughed. "Come on, let's get you patched up."
"Forget me right now, Major." Raege said, stepping forward. "We need to get the men together..." She took notice of Jacobi and Grin, then. "You three all came for me, huh?"
"Yes Sir." Jacobi said, tersely.
"Don't you worry, Commissar!" Kas Grin exclaimed. "We took care of the other guys trying to kill you!"
"Did you?" Raege said, feigning surprise. "I'm grateful to you, then. You both saved my life."
Not entirely a lie, but not entirely accurate either. It helped to compliment the more humble of the troops, such as Kas.
Raege quickly stepped past them. "Come on, Major, we need to get a headcount..."

Within the next twenty four hours, multiple quick decisions were made: First and chief among them, Raege decided to order Captain Millia to prepare the Ave Maria for travel; she needed off the planet at once before any further harm could be done to her, and she knew this. Second, Raege oversaw interrogation of the surviving assassin, who in his attempt to evade capture killed the ten guards sent after him before being overwhelmed by reinforcements; the Commissar could only commend the interrogators, as the details hastily gleaned from the assassin pointed them to several spies who assisted in planning the operation; among them was a comms operator in the spire control. Raege used her leverage, rather than have them interrogated, to have them executed - she was the executioner. Meanwhile, the surviving assassin was accidentally killed when a second shift of interrogators took the work too far.
Meanwhile, taking the opportunity pragmatically, Raege opened up recruitment to anyone willing in the Guard forces stationed at the Magnus Prima - a risky investment, following an assassination attempt by a deeply-infiltrated team. It was the only thing she was still on the planet for; as soon as she was finished with this, she would be leaving for the Ave Maria by shuttle, and then she would plan a destination for them... they could not wait for Levy's order, as anything he sent could be intercepted, and so they would be undergoing travel for a planet of Raege's choosing.

The entire trip had been disastrous, Raege ultimately concluded. Five men from the unit in total had been killed, and Eva Neuehoffe was in critical condition.
Raege herself had not escaped unscathed. Her bandaged arm was in a sling, and her battered face was bandaged as well. Levy had apparently issued orders that she be given top care if injured, which she was; it would be a few days for her face to completely heal, and her arm would not take much longer than a few weeks.
As she looked out upon the horizon from the Magnus Prima shuttle platform, she contemplated her situation further. There was no doubt, that entire attack had been staged by the Knights Teutonic. In her summary report to Levy, she did not even bother with accepting it may have been otherwise - a judgment he no doubt would agree with.
Boone stepped up then, smiling as best she could after having been awake for nearly a full day. "Final report on troop acquisition for you, Mam."
Raege turned and took the report, reading the single-page list dispassionately. Only fourteen volunteers.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the fourteenth name:
Yarn Blaske.
Her hand trembling, she unconsciously crumpled the corner of the paper, and handed it to Boone. "Where are they waiting?" She asked, attempting to remain calm.
Boone gulped. "They, um... they're waiting your order down on the upper platform of the loading bay."
"Go ahead and get on the shuttle when it gets here. I'll be on soon after." Raege ordered.
"Yes'm!" Boone said, meekly.

When the lift stopped, and the doors opened, Raege found Blaske sitting, nearly directly ahead, with the rest of his new 'comrades'. They took one look at the Commissar, and then stood at attention. Raege said nothing, and instead simply approached them. As soon as she was close enough, she lunged at Blaske, pushing him off his feet and exciting the other recruits.
"You little shit!" She shouted, pinning him to the deck. "You filthy, miserable little shit! You think you can just betray your allies, and then run off before punishment can be delivered?"
"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Commissar!" Blaske cried out. "Please, if I have offended you in some way, let me know-"
"You've certainly managed to offend me, that's for sure!" Raege said, punching him across the face. "You know what happens when you piss off a commissar, right?" She pulled out her autopistol. "I somehow doubt that! But let me show you..." She pushed the barrel of the gun against Blaske's eye. "See this gun? There's a reason they call this model the Wrist-Rattler! All that force is going straight into your fikking eye, you bastard!"
"Just a minute! Just a minute, I say!" Blaske said, desperately. "You have no proof that I did anything wrong! And if I did, why would I join your unit?"
"To get away from the authorities here!" Raege snapped.
"But that doesn't make sense! You're righteous, honorable, and you have the authority to kill me on a whim! The commissars here need to file several mounds of paperwork to get me even tried, and they wouldn't find anything, but you don't need that. Working with you would kill me, if I wasn't pious!" Blaske explained. "Please, Raege! You see, I volunteered to do something good, give me this chance!"
"You didn't give your regiment a chance." After a few moments of dead silence, Raege took her gun away from his face. "Very well. Consider yourself lucky. One screw-up, though, Yarn Blaske, and I'll make sure your death is painful."
She got up from atop him, and stepped away, leaving the others to help the lightly-injured Blaske up.
He watched her leave on the elevator. When the doors closed, and nobody was looking, Yarn Blaske's face twisted into a wicked grin.
Just as always, he'd managed to get away.

As soon as all was prepared, Raege boarded the Ave Maria and immediately went to the bridge. Captain Anitia Millia was awaiting her, sober as ever. "Commissar, Sir." She acknowledged Raege with a bow of her head.
"Set us underway, Captain." Raege said, standing noble as ever in spite of her injured arm.
"Where-for?" Millia asked.
Raege waved her hand about uncaringly. "I don't care, just a planet away from here."
"Aye." Millia stepped forward. "Navigator! Plot a course for the planet Kulth!"
Raege stood and looked upon Ganf Magna through the viewport until the ship had completely turned away from it.
"Good riddance." She grumbled to herself, and strode off the bridge.