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Chapter 18: Kronus: Aftermath

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Part 7

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hangar bay

Dominator Cruiser Gryphon

in high orbit above Kronus

A Valkyrie wearing a fresh coat of paint landed nimbly in the hangar. Two platoons of armored Naval Armsmen quickly surrounded the assault transport and aimed at the ramp. A pair of Interceptors hovered nearby, ready to unleash their heavy ordnance upon the Valkyrie if the situation warranted it.

Marat waited nearby, taking cover behind all stack of metal crates secured to the deck with thick chains and magnetic clamps. His retinue was in the area, taking cover behind whatever they deemed best. The Inquisitor had only Jack with him, the latest Sanctified Psyker he could get his hands on. In his line of work, Psykers tended to expire even faster than usual. Many Daemons deemed their souls particularly delicious or found their kind offensive, like every Khornate Daemon ever.

By all accounts, Jack wasn't going to last long either. He was already a babbling wreck, and Marat hadn't brought him to a single proper hunt yet.

"IT EATS THE EMPEROR'S LIGHT!" The poor bastard screamed and grabbed Chandra by the shoulders, trying to shake the Inquisitor.

The "light" power armor he wore prevented any such abuse, and he gently removed Jack's hands from his coat, then nodded to the Psyker's current minder – a gruff, no-nonsense veteran Sergeant he picked up during his last mission.

The NCO pulled out a wooden club covered with rubber to minimize the damage and raised an eyebrow at Marat. Chandra nodded, and Sergeant Xerxes clobbered Jack on the back of the head. The Psyker slumped in the Inquisitor's hands until Xerxes put the club away and took the knocked out man.

"At least we have a confirmation about the Blank." Marat nodded happily. "That's a piece of good news." It all but guaranteed that Veil wasn't a Daemonhost who was a particularly smart and sneaky bastard. A few other tests involving relics would be in order, just in case. However, this was one of the more important ones.

The Valkyrie's ramp went down with a clang, and the passengers disembarked quickly. Veil led the way. He carried a curious little girl on his shoulders, who notably wore a carapace armor that was a good fit for her. Marat could see the Armsmen shuffle uneasy, though, to their, and Anastasia's credit, they didn't waver. Neither did they do something foolish like open fire unprovoked. That could have been messy.

Marat glanced at Xerxes and saw the Sergeant had stashed Jack by the crates. The NCO was already back by his side, with his weapon on the ready. Chandra gave the man another nod and went to meet his fellow Inquisitors.

After just a few paces, he could feel a wave of unease wash over him. However, unless he focused on the child, Marat wouldn't have been able to tell it was her. Perhaps it was her proximity with the Saint or his inexperience with Blanks?

By the time Chandra was in front of his fellow Inquisitors, and their small retinue – a Commissar, Blood Raven Librarian, and a few troopers, his spine felt like it wanted to crawl away. How Veil could stand to be this close to the girl, much less touch her, he would never know. It was also something worthy of study. However, this wasn't the time or place for that.

"Marat, you're a sight for sore eyes." Amberley both looked and sounded happy to see him.

That was never a good reaction to have as an Inquisitor – it meant you either just walked into a trap, or the situation was fucked beyond belief.

In this case, it was probably both.

A brief, redundant introduction followed, which were just long enough for the two Priests working with Marat to arrive with their cargo.

"A few tests, for peace of mind if nothing else." Chandra smiled at the small group.

"Let's get it over with. Off you go." Veil picked up the Pariah because Marat was beginning to suspect the child was no mere Blank and gently put her on the deck.

While she didn't look all too pleased, the Pariah remained silent.

"It might be for the best if we test the child first." Father Harris croaked. The graying man looked between the small Pariah and the Saint nervously, then busied himself with opening the heavy container he helped drag all the way here.

They were going to do the tests out here, in the hangar. That way, in case a daemon possessed someone, they could hopefully deal with it with the aid of heavy firepower. And without endangering the whole ship went without saying. While if he had to, Marat would sacrifice the Gryphon and her crew without a second thought, he would very much prefer to see his daughter outlive him by a good margin, thank you very much.

"That's a finger bone." Veil stated flatly when Father Shu reverently retrieved a piece of Saint Sebastian. It was the real deal, not like the thigh of Saint Helene that Daemons laughed at. That wasn't a good memory…

"It's a relic from a Saint!" Shu barked. Then he caught himself and looked warily at the Saint who shook his head, took a few steps forward, and picked up the sacred relic.

"Anteas, would you kindly pick up Selene and show her the rest of the hangar? Perhaps after she has touched the relics without anything bursting into the fire?" Veil suggested. He looked critically at the bone and shrugged.

The Astartes walked forward with a surprisingly agile and quick gait for someone that large. It never ceased to amaze Marat how fast the Emperor's Angels of Death could move.

Veil turned around, walked to the girl, and offered her the relic. She looked at the sacred bone with confusion and eventually poked her with a finger. Everyone watched with bated breath.

Marat was sure that many of the Armsmen expected to see the little horror burst in holy flames. Instead, she poked the relic again, shrugged, and lost interest in it.

"Better get her away… if it's all right?"Father Shu looked nervously at Marat, who nodded lightly.

The Priest sagged with relief and quickly grabbed the relic from Veil's hand. He rapidly returned it to the box while muttering prayers. Those two might be useful, however, sometimes their antics were just too much. Nevertheless, Chandra kept enduring. Having this on record and with his stamp of approval would go a long way to give legitimacy to Veil's status, and by extension, everything the crazy Radical touched. Now, if only Marat could figure a way to keep the damn fool from opening his mouth in front of a Conclave…

Father Harris reverently pulled out the hilt of Daemon Slicer, the shattered blade of Saint Yorinaga. The Blank perked up at that and skipped forward before anyone could stop her. She stood in front of the Priest and bounced on her feet eagerly looking at the broken weapon in his hands.

"Go on. You wanted this circus, you'll see it through to the very end." Veil smirked at them, the cheeky bastard.

Harris glared at the Pariah, who stared back. The Pariah won the starring match in a hurry, and the Priest handed her the hilt in disgust. She grabbed it happily and began swinging it with no skill and tons of energy.

"What's next? Holy oils? Watching if I will burst in a fire if I pray to the Emperor?"

Both Harris and Shu nodded in tandem.

"Just grab the bloody finger bone outside of The Pariah's aura, and we'll go from there." Marat's patience reached his limits. To think that this sham was going to be a part of an official report with his name on it… What did he do to personally offend the Emperor?!

The Astartes, Anteas, moved quickly, picked up the girl, and walked away, carrying her on his shoulder, all the while, the Pariah beamed and silently swung the relic.

As soon as those two were far enough, Veil blazed with golden power. The Priests forgot the purpose of the exercise and fell to their knees, babbling prayers. He went to the container, picked up the bone with two fingers, and raised it for everyone to see.

The relic glowed even brighter than the radiance surrounding Veil. The Saint's wings spread wide and silently fluttered in the air, illuminating the whole hangar in the process.

"Ave Imperator." Veil mock-saluted Marat with the relic and put it back. "The Emperor Protects," Veil added and waved at the Priests, who redoubled their prayers.

"Fine, you aren't a Daemon, just a pain in my ass. Amberley, go touch the relic, the rest of you too, we can't be too careful." Chandra growled.

It was going to be a futile exercise. Marat knew it almost immediately because when he glanced at the container, he could see all the blessed relics inside glow with the Emperor's power, just like Veil did.

Things couldn't be simple and merely require an Exterminatus, could they? The paperwork and investigations after one would be much shorter and less troublesome than this.

That wasn't the end either. The Ecclessiarchy's representatives would be arriving within the hour, giving Marat just enough time to ensure Veil was the real deal and not a Daemon; or to clean up the mess if he was a Daemon, but that was a moot point now.

Amberley picked up the relic and clutched her in her palm as if it was a lifeline. She suddenly sagged in relief.

"You know, I was almost certain you were the real deal, hoped you were, but until we got an all-clear from the Malleus, I couldn't be sure." Amberley offered Veil an apologetic look.

And that was why Marat liked the woman even if she was Ordo Xeno with all the icky things that entailed. She was properly paranoid, however, she didn't let it ruin her.

"Let's get to the pilot's tactical room. We need to talk before the Ecclesiarchy invades this ship." Marat grumbled. He would be dealing with the fallout of this for years to come. He was certain of it.


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Three Inquisitors, an Astartes Librarian, and a Pariah child gathered in the tactical room. It was the beginning of a bad joke, and that neatly encapsulated Marat's life now.

"I won't bother asking what you were thinking, because it's obvious, you weren't. Either that, or you didn't know any better!" Chandra glared at the Saint, who held the Pariah in his lap.

Veil merely raised an eyebrow at Marat, while the child glared with those huge soul-sucking eyes. Marat stoically ignored the Pariah and kept his attention on Veil.

"If you were trying to brand everyone on Kronus as Hereteks in the eyes of the Mechanicus at large, you've almost succeeded. With flying colors at that." Marat nodded grimly.

"Our new colleague is obviously a Radical." Amberley made a 'what can you do' gesture. If it wasn't for the wings and the glow, perhaps beat some sense into Veil's head?

"I'm opened to reasonable suggestions." Veil ignored Marat's glower as if it was nothing.

"Stygies VII. It's a Forge World in this Segmentum. The Tech-priests there are known to be rather radical and love to study Xeno artifacts when they can get away with it. We'll contact them by Astropath as soon as it becomes feasible and dispatch a ship there carrying examples of all technologies you managed to swindle from the Xenos." Marat explained his plan. "If we're lucky, we can cut a deal with the Stygites. They will figure a plausible way to spread the Pylon technology when they proclaim it safe and ready for deployment."

"Second, at least a part of your plan for the Tau wargear has merit. We can incorporate it among Inquisitorial Retinues, especially those of our Ordos." Amberley picked up.

That was sensible. The Ordo Xenos try hards always picked up alien toys to play with. Sometimes, they even managed not to accidentally kill themselves with the Xeno equipment and put it to good use on top of that.

"We need the bloody Guard equipped at least as well as those blue bastards! I meant it!" Veil growled in frustration, and his wings ruffled, mirroring his mood. "Just a few thousand years ago, the Tau were stuck on their homeworld as pre-space flight society! Right now, only the Astartes and the Mechanicus elite forces could field as good or better equipment! Look me in the eyes and tell me a bunch of Xenos are smarter and beter at science than humanity!"

Marat kept glowering. While what Veil said was true, and the bastard did raise a good point, this wasn't something anyone sane wanted to tangle with. Doing so meant going against large sections of the Mechanicus and rocking the boat to such an extent it wasn't funny. It wasn't a fight the Inquisition as a whole was certain to win. Not to mention, even a victory might taste like ashes.

"If you keep pushing, you're either going to get yourself killed, start a civil war, or both!" Marat snapped.

"What should I do instead? Close my eyes, pray and watch the Imperium and humanity keep sliding into the abyss?! To hell with that!" Veil all but roared, and despite the Pariah in his lap, his eyes briefly glowed with golden power.

The Emperor's power.

Marat now had the sinking suspicion he knew what the Emperor intended with his interventions on Kronus and that suspicion, terrified the veteran Daemon hunter.


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Part 8

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Dominator Cruiser Gryphon

in high orbit above Kronus

Marat felt a profound sense of relief when he left the tactical room. He didn't quite run away. He was too dignified and experienced to make such a terrible example. Nevertheless, he was the first one out as soon as they got news about the Ecclesiarchy's delegation approach. In the same manner, Chandra didn't run into the hangar, doing his best to put as much distance between the abomination and her pet Saint, or was it the other way around?

"Anastasia, did you send our new guests a recording of the test?" Marat spoke into the vox built in his armor.

"They saw it, Inquisitor." Despite his daughter's formal tone, Chandra could hear more than a hint of mirth in her voice.

Living down those reports to the Sector Conclave and higher Imperial authorities was going to be hard, perhaps even harder than he imagined.

"The Ecclesiarchy delegation claims they have seen proof enough. They can't wait to meet the Saint."

Those poor bastards. Marat almost smirked. Misery did indeed love company.

The Inquisitor reached the landing area just in time to see an old transport shuttle ponderously make its way down. It landed with a dull clang and the hiss of stressed hydraulics. Its ramp lowered down slowly, and with even more noise, amply demonstrating that it needed either more maintenance or spare parts that conspicuously lacked.

Chandra grimaced when he felt the Pariah's aura wash over him. His spine tried to crawl away again, and he was afraid of how the representatives of the Faith would react.

A fully armored Sister of Battle walked down first. Her armored boots clanged loudly against the deck. She towered a head above Marat, which she put to good use to scanning the area for threats. When nothing obvious materialized, she nodded once, almost certainly speaking over vox. A small, colorful group of men and women disembarked and lined up in front of Marat and his companions. By now, Amberley, Veil, and the rest of their party had caught up and stood behind him.

A huge black man towered above everyone else, including the armored Sister of Battle. The odd exo-skeleton fixed to his white and red armor helped a bit in that regard, however, most of it was the fact that the Missionary was a small mountain of muscle.

"Greetings and salutations in the name of the God-Emperor!" The huge man rumbled and grinned widely, revealing two rows of golden teeth. "I'm Missionary Jacob Wolf, the leader of this humble expedition!"

"Inquisitor Marat Chandra, Ordo Malleus, a pleasure." He answered dryly. It was obvious this group was interested in only one thing – they all had their eyes focused behind Marat.

Chandra observed with satisfaction how quickly most of those grins became rather fixed and very obviously strained. He might actually get to like that little monster. As long as she kept away from him unless there were Daemons around in need of vigorous banishing.

"Let me introduce my honored colleagues, Inquisitor Amberley Vail, and the blessed by the Emperor, Inquisitor Delkatar Veil. Both serve Ordo Xenos." Marat firmly kept his glee in check, so it wouldn't show.

On second thought, as long as they could keep Veil reined in, and away from politically volatile issues, he could prove very useful to the Inquisition. While his status as a Saint wasn't officially accepted, the wings and golden radiance were clue enough, if only after ruling out a Daemonic possession anyway.

The primary reason why was staring Marat in the face. Even with the little Pariah's presence influencing them, he could clearly see the fanatic glean in the newcomers' eyes. If handled right, this could give the Inquisition sector-wide eager Ecclesiarchy support. That was always better than the grudging support they often received from certain quarters of the church.

"Your Holiness, it's a privilege to meet you!" One of the female priests gushed. Her head bobbed, spilling her blond hair around her shoulders when she went into a deep cross between a bow and a curtsy.

The others offered a similar sentiment, in a more or less controlled fashion. A glance told Marat enough – neither of the faithful was happy with the Pariah's presence. At least they had the good sense not to bring a Psyker if they suffered one in their presence in the first place. That was an amusing tangent Marat deemed better avoided. He needed his attention for the task at hand.

Well, he needed Veil's attention and dubious lead, because no one was paying him attention. The Ecclesiarchy party had eyes only for the Saint and if this persisted, it was going to be an incredibly useful distraction for covert investigations. That was another way to use Veil if only the damn Saint could learn to keep his mouth shut…

Not that he got an opportunity to open his mouth. The floodgates opened and the Priests swamped him with questions.

"Please tell us about the Emperor's blessing!"

"Can you share your insights about…"

"Would you kindly bless us in the name of the God-Emperor?"

Only Wolf and the Sister of Battle managed to keep their mouths shut, though in the former case, it was obvious that the Missionary strained to hold himself back.

"I'm glad to meet you all!" Speaking about Veil, he finally managed to get a word in between all the eager prayers and questions he got bombarded with. "Let's retreat to a more comfortable setting before we proceed?"

Marat wasn't sure if it was a question or suggestion, however, it was more than enough to get the delegation nodding and falling in line. At that, the Inquisitor had to re-evaluate the potential influence Veil, and the Inquisition, could wield over the church. This could end being either a tremendous boon or a disaster in the making.

A few minutes later, after they sat more or less comfortably within the tactical room, Marat concluded. Unless handled very carefully, Veil was going to be an unmitigated disaster. All it took, was one, not so innocent question from Missionary Wolf.

"What do you want to achieve, Saint Veil?"

Perhaps it was better that way. Otherwise, the feathered menace might have told the same thing in front of the wrong crowd with a predictably disastrous outcome. Veil opened his mouth and began speaking. Within moments, Marat felt like shooting himself. Or Veil. Perhaps both.

"My goals, Missionary Wolf? I want to save the Imperium from itself." Veil began. "I want to save it from the countless enemies besieging it from within and outside. I want to bring back the golden edge that died with the end of the Great Crusade!"

As Veil spoke, Marat could swear he began to lightly glow despite the Pariah in his lap. He was certainly sure he saw golden flecks forming both in the Saint's eyes and those of the little abomination.

"The Imperium is a shadow of what it should and could be! Right here, in this very Sector, we have the Tau! Just a few thousand years ago, the height of technology they knew were sharp rocks they used to bash in each other heads!"

The mention of Xenos killing each other violently predictably got a good reception. Not a bad start, even though it was never a good form to even hint at the Imperium being deficient in any way. Unfortunately, this was merely the beginning, and things went quickly downhill.

"Yet, right now, they're fielding technologies equal or superior to what the Imperial Guard has available on Kronus! They take for granted technological marvels that many worlds across the Imperium would never see!" Veil's wings snapped open in an angry fashion and covered the bulkhead behind his back.

Unsurprisingly, Veil now held the Priests' rapt attention. If he didn't end up starting a Crusade today, it would be a small miracle. All Marat could do was watch the train-wreck in progress with sick fascination.

"I am not praising the Tau for their ingenuity or creativity. I am damning those who let the Imperium decay for thousands of years. How many feudal and feral worlds have you seen? How many civilized worlds are pale shadows of what they could be? Our Imperium is sick. It is slowly decaying from within!" Veil proclaimed.

Marat had the sick realization that the madman meant what he spouted. This wasn't just a ploy. He wasn't playing for the public. Oh no, he was earnest. He was a fanatic. And if he wasn't stopped and redirected towards less dangerous pursuits, Marat was terrified of the damage Veil could cause with the best of intentions.

"I have a vision," The maniac kept going. "I can see us take the Tau's twisted knowledge, sanctify it in the Emperor's light and make it our own! If the Mechanicus refuses to rebuild our worlds into shining beacons of hope, then we will do it ourselves, using any means necessary!"

The maniac was talking about a Crusade all right! Just not one aimed against external enemies. Marat looked at Vail, who had a fixed, frozen smile on her face. Even the Astartes showed his true feelings in the way his lips were firmly set in a pale line.

Yet, the Ecclesiarchy people lapped it all. At that point, Marat considered shooting Veil and the Priests, purging them here and now, and damn the consequence. Then he keenly recalled the backing this crazy bastard received not once, but twice in the span of a week. Marat remembered his earlier conclusion and struggled not to giggle in despair.

Did the Emperor truly want this? Would even He on Holy Terra contemplate such an insane course of action? And if he would, what threat was out there to warrant it?

"I want to see all our worlds rebuild to the highest standard! I want them covered in gleaming cities, golden domes, and clean manufacturing districts that will be the pride of the galaxy! I want to see the Imperium reverse its long decline and enter a renaissance that should have began ten thousand years ago! I want to see humanity finally grasp its birthright and leave behind this wretched age of blind ignorance and stubborn dogma! I want to see the age of reason return! I want to see the shining beacons of knowledge and progress picked up again as an inspiration for trillions!"

At that, the Priests were on their feet, applauding and loudly proclaiming their support.

Marat and Amberley shared a long look of despair.


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