Note
This one took a lot longer to publish then I expected, but here is chapter 3. I plan to release these monthly on the 1st or 2nd of each month. Thank you and enjoy.
Chapter 3: The Descent
The ceremony had come to an end and before we could even acclimate to our new roles transport ships arrived. We were ordered to board the transports of the Order that we now served. I boarded one of the transports, next to me on either side was Salona and Julian, near the cockpit was Superior Helena, seeing them brought me some senses of relief, yet this was to be short-lived. The transport took us to a Mars class Battlecruiser, much larger than the ship I arrived on, to begin our journey to Vigilus. The trip itself was incredibly quiet as I spent much of the time reflecting on my training, the laws of the Order, my responsibilities and the Emperor. This was now my life, I had finally begun my life, achieved what I dreamed, for better or worse.
At some point in the journey, I was called to a briefing. While I walked the cold lifeless metal hallways of the ship, I already knew what to expect, the orders from Inquisitor Belfor, but had yet to find out who would be there. In the room stood around a holographic display was six others, Superior Helena, Julian and Salona, and three of I did not know, at that time.
Superior Helena noticed that I had arrived, "Sister Celeste welcome, now you're let me introduce you to the rest of the squad for the mission," gesturing at one of the Sisters, "this is Sister Mari. She's been with the Order for fifteen years now." Sister Mari nodded in response. An eye patch covered her left eye engraved with the Orders insignia; she had a pale skin complexion with black hair cut short. She looked as though she had seen many battles. Superior Helena continued, "next we have Sister Silvana, seven years so far." Sister Silvana looked less war-torn than Sister Mari, yet she still had a few scars covering her face, she had darker skin, and jet-black hair.
"And still more to come, Superior." Sister Silvana smirked as she spoke, she had a much deeper voice than expected.
"Quiet." Superior Helena commanded in a sharp manner. If I needed any more evidence of her authority, there it was. "And finally, we have Inquisitor Hassan from the Ordo Heretics. He will be accompanying us on this mission."
"Yes, now as you all know we will likely be encountering Genestealers, IF the reports are to be believed, thus the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy felt it necessary to investigate these, however we unfortunately lost contact with the inquisitor tasked with investigating these reports, as you should know." Hassan inserted a drive into the holographic display which showed a profile on the missing Inquisitor. "This is Lord Inquisitor Cila, last we heard from her she talked of evidence in the Underhive of Hyperia that may lead to the existence of a Genestealer Cult. We are to find her and if there is a Genestealer Cult found we are to purge them all. Understood."
"Understood, Inquisitor." We replied.
"On one final note an Inquisitor from the Ordo Xenos will join us, they feel… this extends to their jurisdiction as well." Inquisitor Hassan added.
"Sisters you are dismissed. You are for the remainder of the journey to focus on weapons training, weapon maintenance and armour maintenance. DISMISSED," commanded Superior Helena. Whenever there was spare time, I would talk to Sister Mari and Sister Silvana and learned of the many battles they both fought in, also found out that Mari was not much of a talker and Silvana probably talked too much.
We arrived at Vigils which brought interesting feelings, it was home, but now my home felt more like the Covent back on Ophelia VII. When I stepped out of the transport and felt the metal of the landing pad, of the city itself I felt a lack of empathy as though I should have cared but instead, I was disconnected form the people of this world, this was just where the mission was. We made our way to the Abby Septimus through the streets of Hyperia, even inside a Rhino, the smell came seeping thought and smelt worse than I remember, the smell of death, disease and cooked 'meats' that no one should eat.
Entering the courtyard of the Abby I was lost for words, as I stood looking at the statue of Saint Katherine, taken back to the first time I visited this place as a child. How far I had come. I bowed my head and prayed to her and the Emperor thanking them as without their strength and guidance I would not be here.
"Sister Celeste, as much as it's good that you show devotion, you have orders to bring your equipment to the barracks. It's building on the left, just follow the rest of the squad," Superior Helena instructed. I placed my equipment in the room I was given, each Battle Sister had their own room for storage mainly and a place to pray in privet. After we finished, we were ordered to meet in the main hall and have a meeting with the inquisitor from the Ordo Xenos, Lord Inquisitor Aris. She stood with an aura of power; armour adorned with, insignias, scripture and trims of gold and red. I wonder to myself to this day if all the Inquisitors from Ordo Xenos wore such armour. Inquisitor Hassan explained that we would be taking a service lift to the Underhive and that he and Superior Helena would take point while Sister Mari and Sister Silvana would guard the rear. I was unsure as to what we would find down there, normally this would have brought a wave of fear to my mind, but I was now a Sister of Battle and fear was a weakness I had rid myself of. Our weapons, our armour and our bullets had all been blessed, we were ready.
We reached the service lift and descended into the Underhive. Once we reached the bottom, I took a deep breath. We were no longer in safety, no safety under the Schola Progenium, nor the Convent or the Abbey. Superior Helena had seen the look in my eyes and gave that same smile from the ceremony which calmed me I was ready.
"Helmets on, switch to adaptive visuals," ordered Superior Helena, "move forward and all are hostile from this point on, remember Sisters these are no longer people of the Imperium."
"Yes, Sister Superior," we all replied. Traversing the Underhive was strange, thinking of all the creatures living down there, I mean we all knew of Underhive, but it was always talked of in hushed tones, and never talked of in a good light. At first, we encountered unsurprisingly little, just a few creatures in the distances who would scatter at the sight of us, they knew to keep away. We continued to descend further and further until we encountered an Underhive gang. They immediately began to fire at us as soon as they saw us and thus, we treated them as enemies of the Imperium, immediately we took cover wherever we found it. Luckily the Underhive was a jungle of metal pipes, rotating gears, degrading walkways and makeshift barricades. The gang had blocked our path moving forward, firing heavy bolters to suppress us and flamers to keep us at a distance.
"Sister Mari," yells Superior Helena, "provide suppressing fire on Silvana's orders, Sister Silvana when ready use your bolter rifle to take out the heavy bolters. Celeste, Julian and Salona suppress them continually. Lord Inquisitor Aris and Inquisitor Hassan stay in cover; we will handle these heretics." Sister Mari and Sister Silvana nodded in response and the rest of us provided suppressive fire.
Sister Silvana bowed her head and began to pray, "May Saint Katherine and the Emperor guide my bullets this day to purge our enemies." She took a deep breath, gripped her rifle, lined up the first target, then squeezed the trigger and seconds later a fountain of blood erupted from one of the gang members as they dropped the heavy bolter, now only one remind and the four flamers. Superior Helena and the Inquisitors slowly began to press forward as the second heavy bolter was taken out. We continued to provide suppressive fire in rotation until one flamer was stood alone. They tried to flee and just as we began to pursue them Inquisitor Aris placed her hand in the air signalling us to hold our position, she then pulled out her sword placing the flat edge to her forehead and praying. Within seconds she had begun running toward the enemy and in one slashing motion of her blade the person had split in half from shoulder to hip, their organs spilt out some fell through the holes of the walkway, most likely food for a lesser creature.
"Heretics," Aris remarked, "they are better off dead, lest their filth infect the Imperium." we walked through their bodies, I was used to seeing death but this feeling of pity, that was the the first time I ever felt pity for anyone else, I pitied them for what they had become.
"Let us keep moving," added Superior Helena, "we still have some way to go before reaching their last known location."
Eventually, we reached the Lord Inquisitor Cila's last known location. When we reached the location, we found a data pad which looked somewhat damaged, but there was one entry with some data found on the device, it contained an audio message, transcript and a tracking program.
"This is Lord Inquisitor Cila, I was able to confirm the presence of a Genestealer Cult, but I have yet to confirm their numbers, identify the cult, their origins or how far in the brood cycle they are. Communications seem to have failed. I will be descending deeper, so I leave this message in the event I do not return. On this device, I have placed a localised tracker program and attached the tracker to myself in the hopes that you will be able to find and exterminate the cultists. Emperor, guide you."
Using the device Julian was instructed to connect the device to her helmet, using it to track Cila's signal. "What's her location, Sister Julian?" Asked Inquisitor Hassan.
"She is about four kilometres north-west and three hundred feet below, Inquisitor."
"Good, with some luck she is still alive."
I could not understand why if there were Genestealers down here why had we not seen any, especially when so close to her. Feelings of fear slowly seeped into my mind, but I managed to keep them at bay. Whenever I think back to the Underhive it reminds me of my times before the Schola Progenium, when all that mattered was survival, I cared not for others suffering, but now I worried for the Lord Inquisitor. There are many fates worse than death.
We eventually reached the point where the device had guided us, but what we found was not what we hoped to find. The severed arm of Inquisitor Cila, with the tracking device strapped to the upper part of her arm. The realization at that point had set in my mind, she was dead.
Superior Helena broke the silence that had fallen, "Sister Salona, examine the arm and see if you can find out how long it's been here." After Salona examined the arm it seemed to have been here for at least two days, worst of all she found trace DNA of the Genestealers. No more proof was needed we knew what was next, find and exterminate the Genestealers.