Ysemela will punish me for my foolishness, and rightly so. Rushing forward alone, attacking the Astartes and not even realizing that there are more mon´keigh. Where did they even come from? Uh, my head. The armour may have saved me from the worst but the punch of the Astartes was still powerful, the left side of my face and the muscles in my neck ached with a throbbing pain and my chest hurt from the impact on the floor. It even cracked my helmet. Now I am forced to breathe in the stale air of this cursed ship while one of the Astartes carries me around on his shoulder. Humiliating! "Breachleader, come in." "Communication still non-functional.", this mechanical voice is new, must be the ones who attacked me. "Our mission stays the same." They walked for a couple more moments before they stepped inside a small side room. The ironclad hand of the Astartes grabbed my hip and pulled me from his shoulder. I was still playing the unconscious captive, even as he dropped me hard on the floor. Brute. Carefully I observed my surroundings, the Astartes and the armoured, female mon´keigh stood before me. A fourth was behind them, though I'm not sure how much of... it is still organic. The finger of the female mon`keigh were playing with the trigger of her crude weapon while the Astartes seemed almost relaxed, she probably wants to kill me now than later. Without these bindings I could decapitate every one of them before they could even draw a single breath. "Shall I wake her up, my Lord?" Even with the helmet I know she smiles, waking me up probably involves a kick in the rips. "Unnecessary.", one of the Astartes stepped closer and grabbed my damaged helmet, ripping it from my head, hurting my jaw and ears in the process. "She´s long awake." Absent-minded he looked at the helmet before tossing it towards the modified female. An Electric crackle came from her disfigured face as she let several metallic tentacles slide over it. She seemed like a child with a new toy. The armoured female stepped closer, raising her weapon slightly, "Why are you here, Eldar?" I didn´t give her the satisfaction of an answer. "Speak Xenos!", before she could step closer to hit me one of the Astartes stopped her. "Don´t. We know already." "You know nothing, mon´keigh." Their language was crude and humiliating to use." "Really? So, you're not here for the Spirit Stones?" My heart turned to ice. How...? "Apparently we do know some things." "For example:", continued the second Astartes, "That these Cultists belong to the God who is especially interested in Eldar." "And they seem equally interested in summoning daemons." "What is this, human? Are you trying to scare me?" "We just state the obvious. For example, that even you and your... squad will never be able to find the Spirit Stones before this ship will be destroyed… or you simply drown in corpses." I hate it but the Astartes is right, Ysemela knew from the beginning that it was a big risk to come onto this ship. "What do you want, human?" The pale-blue glowing lenses observed me for a second, "We find your... squad and the rest of ours, and together we survive this ship. After that, you get the Spirit Stones and leave to never come back." "My Lord?!", I couldn´t see the face of the female, but she must be as confused as I am. "The Cultists will be enough of a problem, and we have no interest at a war with two fronts." "So...", the other Astartes took my helmet back from the modified mon`keigh, "...what do you say?" Two more mon´keigh appeared beside him, more machine than flesh with my weapons in their metallic hands. Instead of an answer I just shoved my bound hands toward him.
"Do you know where your squad will go?" We moved slowly through the innards of the ship, me and one of the Astartes at the front, the others behind. "Why? That your "brothers" can prepare an ambush?" "The opposite, we want them spared from being shot." That made me snicker. "You don´t think that they could be danger to them?" "I would answer that, but I'm afraid my chest would explode." "A sensible fear, Xenos.", came the answer from my back. The moment they had given me back my weapon I tried to use my mask, but it was damaged beyond function. Probably the only reason the Astartes even gave it back to me. "No matter what you think of us, alone you will not survive." "Why do you think that, mon`keigh." Their indifference towards my insults was in equal parts confusing and irritating. "Something wants to be on this ship, a daemon." Does he really think to know what he´s talking about? Just before we reached a crossing the Astartes slowed, "Hostiles. Take the left." My Shuriken-Pistol cut through the weak mon`keig`s, one even decided to rush me, but my sword freed him of his head. As I turned around the corridor in front of the Astartes was covered in blood and viscera. His weapon was primitive but effective. A statement that could be made of their kind as a whole. "Te-... co-…", the crackling voice came from one of the Astartes helmets, their "brothers" probably. "Team one, come in?" "This is team one, mission accomplished.", answered one of the Astartes, "But we encountered problems." "Eldar?" "Yes, they are looking for Spirit Stones the Inquisitor found." "Understood, we found his Acolyte and the other surviving Sororita just before we encountered the Eldar in the main hangar. We tried to get out of their way but are now blocked in by the cultists." "We are on our way and...", the connection turned into white noise. "Dekra, Route." "Fastest Route: Crew living space. Warning: High chance of enemy contact." "Doesn´t matter. Lead on."
The closer we came to the hangar the thicker the mass of cultist became, most of the time just a short resistance but still, it slowed us down. After the newest group exploded in front of their bulky weapons the Astartes hesitated, "Can you hear it?" "The singing? Long ago, mon´keigh." I must control myself, the Astartes may not care about what I'm saying but the armoured female... her rage will outweigh her obedience some time. Something strange happened as we moved forward, in the same amount the music grew louder, the fewer the cultists became. Are they attracted to it? This can´t be good. Slowly something changed in the music, the hoarse singing turned into angelic voices and the scratchy instruments became... "It´s beautiful." For the first time I was of the same opinion of the as the woman. The blue "eyes" of the Astartes turned towards us for a second, in... affirmation? It doesn´t matter. Like in Trance we entered a hallway, illuminated by festive looking... lumen the humans call them. They led us to a half opened gate, toward the singing. Both Astartes rushed pass me, crashing into the two half´s of the gate before they just froze. The view into the hall was now free, hundreds of cultists, naked, screaming and singing, moving like a single, massive being. In the middle stood a man... woman, in a dark violet robe, a circle of cultists sitting around... them. The song was hypnotizing, just as the lights... the lights? A redish orb was flying under the ceiling of the hall, rays of different coloured light streamed out of it, dancing over the walls until they concentrated on one of the siting cultists. Tears appeared on his skin... The massive hand of the Astartes hit me in the chest, throwing me back, the same happened to the armoured female. That ripped me from my trance. "Dekra!", thundered the voice of the Astartes, "Take them and run!" Mechanical hands grabbed and pulled us away, the Astarets already firing into the mass of cultists. The last thing I saw before turning to run was the silhouettes of the Astartes illuminated by the explosions of their weapons and the body of the cultists opening like a flower made of flesh.
We ran for our lives, never stopping or slowing down, any resistance falling under blades and bullets. "How far?", the female looked behind her every time she could. Probably in hope for the Astartes to follow us... that won't happen. "5 minutes with current speed.", the modified mon`keigh made the head of a attacker explode, "Resistance will slow us down." Really? We reached a crossing with nearly a dozen paths. And of course from every single one, cultists streamed towards us. My blade and pistol cut through them, bodies further away exploded in clouds of red mist and... "Down!" The modified humans jumped aside as something in the group in front of them flared up and raced towards us. A small metal cylinder flew past me and crashed into the wall behind me, the explosion threw me and the female forward, crashing bodies on our landing. Her weapon was nowhere to be seen, bad especially as five cultists jumped her. "Eldar!", a giant, disfigured mon´keigh stood over me, a bulky weapon in its hands. "Di-...!", its face just evaporated. The female had fought her way out of the pile of bodies, crushing limbs and heads with her left arm while shooting a laspistol with her right. She hesitated for a second after she killed the giant next to me. Will she kill me now? "Corpse slave!" Her hand twitched to the right and a blast of light vaporized the chest of an cultist. "I expected you to kill me." "I'm not dumb enough to disobey an Astartes." "Need to proceed. Alone, no chance for survival.", the modified appeared beside us, her metallic hands covered in blood."
Finally, we reached our goal. A enormous vault, filled with containers and small spacecrafts strewn about like the toys of a giant. From somewhere further in the back I could hear explosions, shots and the discharge of electricity. The Astartes and my group, fighting each other and the cultists. "Eldar attacking left flank, we´ll approach Imperial Forces from the right." Imperial Forces? "Why?" "Single Eldar accompanied by Imperial Forces: Chance of getting attacked by other Imperial Forces less than Eldar Forces." She´s right, sadly. Slowly we crept forward between the containers and machinery, towards where we expected the Astartes and "Sisters". Strangely, we didn´t encounter any more cultists. "Any messages from Team 1?", a distorted voice came from behind a container, similar to Gryph and his brother. "Still no connection possible." "They are dead, either the Xenos or Cultists got them.", this voice belonged to someone else, someone who isn't used to being said "no" to. "We have to take out the Warlock.", a female voice. "You will do nothing. As long as they're mainly attacking the cultist she´s helping us. We must..." The Sororita and the modified stepped from behind a container and stopped. "Team one, returns.", broke the modified the silence. "Report, what...?" The Astartes stopped again as he saw me with the metallic ones. Half a dozen guns were pointed at me, all the "sisters" of the armoured female. The others Astartes, except for their leader and a modified one, didn´t care and just kept shooting from their cover into the vault. "You´ve captured an Xenos, good work.", a giant of a man, at least by normal human standards stepped beside the Astartes, he wore some kind of armoured leather coat with an pillar like emblem on the chest, his right eye was replaced by a mechanical one. A Inquisitor, if I remember Ysemela´s tales right. "False, Xenos is...", Dekra was searching for the correct word, "...ally." "Breachleader, immediately execute..." "On who´s order?", the Astartes ignored being talked to by the Inquisitor. "Astartes Gamma 7-8... Gryph. Eldar attacked, after Gryph convinced... her to accompany us. At moment logical decision." "Breachleader, you can´t...", he was ignored again just as the Sororitas still aiming at me. "What happened to Gryph?" "On approach we encountered... ritual, crew of ship summoned daemons, may have succeeded." "They told us to run.", ended the armoured female our story. "Eldar...?", the "Breachleader" addressed me directly. "My name is Iserys." "Can you convince your Farseer to stop fighting us?" "I can try, Ysemela is not dumb but she doesn´t trust mon-... humans." "Good enough.", the leader of the Astartes stepped aside, pulling the man with him. "My Lord?", one of the Sororitas stepped in front of us, "We can´t..." "Shoot them after we left the ship, if you and your sisters feel the need, Cecilia but at the moment are the cultist and their daemons the bigger problem." With that, we left the cover of the container, several bodies laying before me while in a distance lightning cracked through the air. The cultists entered the vault from the right fighting both groups, just now I could see some of them running towards my team... just to be turned into ash by lightning. Several of the cultists near me exploded in Bolter fire. "More are coming, we should hurry.", the leader of the Astartes stepped beside me, and together we ventured deeper in the labyrinth. "Why are you doing this?" "We have no interest in a fight against two enemies. The decision was easy." "Even if it means to help a "foul Xenos"?" "Pride should never stand in the way of survival.", he suddenly stopped, "...so I would ask of you not to puncture my skull." What...? Ysemela had appeared behind us, the tip of her spear just barely scraping over the helmet of the Astartes. "Isery, where did you go?" "Lady Ysemela... I got captured by these..." "Captured!? Because you got reckless, rash! You must control yourself. And why do you follow this savage like a pet?" "The Astartes..." "I have a proposition...", slowly he turned, the Bolter pointed clearly away from her, "We stop trying to kill each other and instead fight the cultist together." "Why? Why should we do that?" "Alone we have no chance of survival." He paused for a second, "And we will give you the Spirit Stones you are here for. After that, we all pretend it never happened." After a second of shocked silence Ysemela laughed, first time I ever heard that, "We should trust you? That we fight, and then you just let us leave? Wouldn't be the first time your kind shoot former allies in the back." "Yes." Another short laugh. The Astartes made a step forward, until the spear tip scratches over his chest armour, "Why should we trust you? It is your kind fault that we have to fight four and not three Chaos Gods." Farseer made a shocked sound. "So, what´s your decision?", his blue lenses stared her down.
"We...", a metallic crunch, followed by heavy breathing cut her off. Something came closer with heavy steps. Breachleader Dumal immediately forget us and pointed his weapon towards the noise. It was... an Astartes, the one who stayed behind with Gryph. His left arm was missing just under his shoulder, a deep cut was going through his right leg and his helmet looked like someone pushed him in an engine. In spite of all this his posture was upright and he held his Boltpistol firm, "Breachleader.", his speech slurred slightly, "There are daemons on this ship. They... they did something to me, a... poison. No no... worse. I can hear them, their whispers, their... love." The Breachleader`s grip on his weapon tightened. "Brother...", the injured Astartes continued, "...has my time come?" Dumal relaxed and... sighed relieved, "Yes brother.", he sounded sorrowful, "It has." "Until we meet again in the last journey.", the injured Astartes raised the weapon to his helmet and pulled the trigger. Metal pieces, blood and bone fragments covered the container beside him, his body collapsed a second later, seemingly unsure on how to react to the death of its occupant. I felt some kind of... admiration. Whatever took hold in his body must have tried forcing him to do terrible things and yet... "Breachleader!", the scream came over an open channel accompanied by the sound of explosions, "Daemons incoming!" Breachleader turned away from us and I could hear the heavy steps of the other Astartes coming closer. They stopped beside us, ignoring Ysemela and the others. All of them pointing somewhere atop the containers, waiting for something only their blue eyes could... their weapons screamed. Most of the shots missed, impacting on the wall and ceiling of the hangar, but some hit their mark, screaming figures jumping through the darkness. As one of them died, it exploded in a small violet cloud. Daemons. The last of the pair dropped down before us, the body of a beautiful woman, somehow... wrong and hair like angry snakes. As she looked towards me, her beautiful face distorted into something monstrous. Before she could stand up Gryph jumped down from above, crushing its skull under his armoured boot. Deep scratches covered his armour, but no blood was to see. "Breachleader.", his head turned towards his fallen brother for a second, "The cultist are led by a Psyker, they are gathering for an attack. Probably with more daemons." "The Soulless should arrive soon, until then, we have to hold out.", he turned back to us, "What is your decision Eldar...?"
It was... strange fighting alongside the mon´keigh. The Astartes had positioned themselves between us and the others and at least one of them is always watching us. They might fight with us, but they don´t trust us blindly. Smart. A sea of cultists streamed towards us and falling under our combined weapons, the floor was already wet with viscera. I shot two of the disfigured humans in the chest before decapitating and slicing a third in half. Several Avengers positioned themselves as a firing line beside me, firing volleys in the approaching cultists. Gryph was to the right of me, literally knee-high in corpses with more cultist climbing over their dead brothers. Suddenly, he one of them by the head, wielding him like a flail to clear the space around him before throwing him against a container. Finally free he stepped closer to his brothers, "How long before the Soulless are here?" "Unsure.", answered Breachleader Dumal, "The connection died as their Thunderhawk reached the ship." Lighting cracked through the hold, burning dozens to cinder, "Who are these "Soulless" even?", yelled Ysemela over the sound of battle. "They..." A container exploded showering us in molten metal. The cultist disappeared and a eerie silence filled the hangar. We all turned towards the explosion, amidst bent and burned metal a single cultist stood proudly, their body covered barely by remains of cloth presenting proudly the sign of "She Who Thirst" on their chest. A orb floated above his right hand and three Daemonettes flanked them like a personal guard. "Corpse slaves, Xenos scum, I..." The Astartes didn´t waited for his speech, their Bolters screamed and sent hundreds of rounds towards him. Other cultists exploded in a shower of blood, the few bits of metal still standing were ripped apart, but none came close to the leader, a sphere of violet light around them and the Daemonettes turned every round into dust. "Do you really think you could hurt me?", a bright white flame appeared around the orb, "Now die." A wave of fire rushed towards us. "Cover!", Dumal´s warning came too late for one of the Astartes and two of our Avengers, their armour dropped empty to the floor. "Is this all the mighty Astartes and proud Eldar have to offer?", while the cultist leader continued his monologue Dumal seemed to hear something, maybe over a private channel. "You dumb..." Several scratching words came from the breachleader, commanding his brothers to... retreat. More out of shock the other mon`keigh followed them, under the laughter of the demons and cultists. Ysemela stepped closer to Dumal, "What are you doing? The "mighty Astartes" running away?" "We are not running away, Eldar." "Then what...?" "We are bait, reinforcements have arrived. They are able to deal with the Psyker and his demons. But you and your squad should better leave." "Oh? Why? Afraid that they..." "They are Pariahs, Blanks, beings without soul or whatever you call them." "...what?", this must be the first time I saw Ysemela surprised. Dumal ignored her question and turned to his brothers, "Gryph?" "Yes?" "Bring the Eldar to the Spirit Stones." The Inquisitor behind him gasped with horror, "Breachleader Dumal, are you insane?" The Astartes stopped abruptly and turned around, "By the definition of your close minded, hypocritical and self-destructive organization, yes! But not by the oath I took the day I was turned into an Astartes. We honour our words." The two men stared each other down, each unwilling to back down. "Augh...", Ysemela recoiled, clawing at her helmet. "What...?" Then I and the others felt it too, the scratching at my mind, the clawing in my stomach making me sick. Not quite painful but... uncomfortable enough to make one go mad. And growing worse by the second. The mon`keigh seemed to feel it too but less severe. "Gryph, get them out of here!" Me and a Avenger grabbed Ysemela and pulled her with us, following Gryph and another Astartes back out the hangar. After we exited the hall, the feeling subsided slowly until it stopped completely and Farseer could walk on her own again. "The vault is not far.", Gryph and his brother didn´t seem to acknowledge what just happened, just kept walking to who knows where. "You mon`keigh are insane. Using these... things." No reaction.
"Something is wrong.", Ysemela´s voice came from nowhere, followed by several explosions. The Astartes slowed down as we reached a crossing, smoke was coming from one corridor. As we looked inside or more so looked in the remains, everything beyond the threshold was a mess of burning metal. My and the weapon of every Eldar pointed towards the Astartes. "This was your doing!", Farseers words were nothing more than a hiss. "We would have detonated the vault immediately or waited until you were inside. Detonating it now is just a waste.", there was no anger or fear in Gryph´s voice, only cold facts. "And yet, our Spirit Stones are lost! With you being the last to see them!" "They were never in this vault." "What?!" Instead of an answer, Gryph removed a cylinder from his belt and gave it to Ysemela. As she opened it a small sob came from underneath her helmet, "...you had them all the time." "Of course. Until we meet again." Without another reaction they turned and left us. "You are... strange Astartes." No reaction.
I felt sick. Because of how the Astartes acted and the presence of these "Soulless". Even without seeing them I could feel them, a itch I could not scratch. With their raspy language gave Breachleader Dumal his brothers orders before turning to us, "We have to protect the Soulless from the cultists while they deal with the Psyker." As we stepped closer to one of the many corridors that surrender the hangar the uncomfortable feeling slowly disappeared. "We need to separate the Psyker from the others.", half a dozen cultists exploded in front of his Bolter. "Is this just a excuse to run away?" Though I would have worded it differently, I shared the Inquisitors confusion. "No but we rigged several promethium tanks.", was all what Dumal said as he stepped through the open bulkhead. They want to turn the hangar in a crematorium The wreck of a fighter craft in front of us melted, making the way free for the Psyker. "Still running?" My shot still could do nothing against them. Then I heard snickering, disgusting, girlish and sadistic. The daemons come, more dancing than walking they moved between the containers just behind the Psyker. Slowly they stepped forward, entering the corridor while disfigured cultists rushed past them just to be mowed down by our weapons. "Now!", on Dumal´s order a small click came from the Techmarine, explosive bolts on the bulkhead detonated, slamming it shut and crushing three cultists underneath it. "Do you really..." The promethium tanks in the hangar detonated and even through the massive steel plates I could hear the screams of a hundred heretics. "You damned... I can't be stopped!", with a gesture, he commanded his daemonettes to attack. We emptied our weapons, but they were still protected by this violet light. The strange feeling, the itch, the turning in the pit of my stomach returned, stronger than ever. The Astartes next to me pushed me aside and as I turned to look behind me, I could see the Soulless. Smaller than the other Astartes and somehow slimmer, their steps slow and controlled. The biggest difference was their armour: instead of the white the others used on their armour, a soft blue glow was emitted by their insignia and details, over it they wore some kind of dark fabric used for a robe and veil. The back of their helmets was lengthened, a mess of tubes, wires, antennas and sensors whose functions I couldn´t even guess. One of them turned towards me, the right eye was enlarged and bulging out from the helmet. The daemons stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the two Pariah´s. Something like... fear appeared on their distorted faces. The two Soulless made another step forward, the daemons made one back in turn. "Do you feel that.", the voice of the Pariah made my body itch. "It´s the first time you feel something like that, isn´t it?" They stepped slowly closer to the warp spawn. "Fear." The strange helmets started to work, elm fire creeping over the wires, antenna´s and machinery, seemingly ripping small parts from the daemons. "You will experience something else for the first time." The warp spawn screamed, as much in horror as in pain. "Death." The oversized lenses started to glow and shot a bolt of lightning dark as the void into the daemons, their bodies dissipating. "You're next.", there was a strange kind of satisfaction in the voice of the Pariah as he saw the Psyker clawing at his temples until he drew blood. "What happened?", a step forward, his screams getting louder. "All this confidence... just gone?" The two Soulless stopped a step away from the Psyker, just staring at him. "Disappointing." The strange helmets started working again, one of them made the last step towards the cultist, putting his finger on his forehead, "Now burn." The screams became even louder as smoke started to rise from his eyes until violet fire burnt them away. "One last ting...", the other Soulless grabbed the small orb in his armoured hand small ribbons of light began to swirl around it for a second dissipating slowly. After it stopped he just dropped it, letting the orb shatter into a million pieces. "The way back to the entry point is clear, Breachleader Dumal." "Good work, brothers."
"The Imperium will not stand for this!" Silas Chaigg, the Acolyte of the Inquisitor as I was told, stood in front of the Breachleader, screaming at him with a red face. We were back in the hangar where the expedition started, Dekra was inspecting together with the other Techpriest some of the spoils they could gather. The Pariahs stood in the middle of the hangar there uncomfortable presence suppressed by the device on their helmets but still noticeable. The other Astartes and my sisters stood behind their representative leader, watching each other. Who will shoot first? "Actively helping Xenos, disobeying representative of the Inquisitorum..." "How did they get the Orb?", the Breachleader injection made him lose his track. "What?" "The artefact that the cultist wielded, how did they get it?" "How should I..." "They were locked in the chests of the Inquisitor." "You..." "A chest that my brothers had found intact and needed to break open, a chest protected by two Electro-Flaggelants, who had to be destroyed by my brothers. I repeat: How did they get the Orb?" "How should I know what kind of Warp...?" "You do know, you just don´t think it's an actual possibility." "The Inquisitor..." "Threw a artefact capable of summoning daemons in a chest with some scraps of clothing, right next to the thing they use as nourishment?! Protected by nothing more than a bulkhead and two over glorified servitors!?" Silence. "There are two possibilities: Either the Inquisitor was a dangerously reckless fool to play with the warp like this, or he had planned for this." "How dare..." "I dare to speak the truth. Dekra." The Techpriestess came closer, carrying a decapitated head. "What is the meaning...?" "Recognize him?", Dumal grabbed the head and put it in front of Silas Chaigg, the burned out eyes staring back. Under dirt and blood the sign of the Inquisitorum, the stylized "I" could be seen on their forehead. "Lord Inquisitor Doria. Leader of the cultists." "This is no proof..." "False.", interrupted the mechanical voice of Dekra, "Cranial implants, genetic code and other identifications: Lord Inquisitor Doria, error margin: 0,01%" Stunned silence, only the small clicking and whirrs from the Skitarii and the helmets of the Soulless. "Will the Imperium stand for that?" Acolyte Chaigg... now Inquisitor Chaigg, hold the Astartes stare for a few additional seconds before he turned to Canoness Cecilia, "I will accompany you and your Sisters." "Yes, my Lord."
Later as the situation has cooled down, Sister Apine, her severed arm hidden under bandages, and me were standing by Sister Galatella and the other survivors of the ship. The Astartes had declared them free of the influence of the Warp, thanks to the Soulless. His words were, "If your soul had been tainted, their presence would burn it out... and killing you." Comforting. "It is a miracle that you survived, Sister.", I told Galatella. "The Emporer protected us. Sending us you and these Astartes... though I'm not sure what to think about them. They are different and..." She stopped and looked somewhere past me, as I turned I could see Gryph and his brother Baelyn coming closer. "My Lord, how can we serve?" Seemingly ignoring her words, four blue eyes concentrated on the young boy. "What is your name?" "S... s... Stelad, my... my Lord.", his voice cracking from awe and fear. "How old are you?" "I´m not sure...", a slight nudge of the Astartes helmet made him stand upright, "At least 12, my lord." To make his state even worse, Breachleader Dumal stepped to us, exchanging several scratching words with his brothers. "Stelad.", Breachleader´s voice boomed through the hangar making the boy jump, "You survived the horrors of this ship, fought and never faltered... you are worthy. Worthy to become an Astartes, to become one of the Os Vulturis. But you need to decide if you yourself are ready. You may die on this journey, break or worse.", Breachleader kneeled down in front of the boy, "Do you accept?" Stelad gasped for air, like a ship serf in failing atmo. A small, "Yes...", barely passed his lips. With a slight nod Dumal stood up and gestured Stelad towards Gryph and Baelyn... his new brothers. "Follow us.", together the walked towards one of the Thunderhawks. "This ship will explode in 20 minutes.", stated Dumal, "You should be gone till then. May we meet again." Silent as before all of them, Astartes, Techpriest, Skitarii and Breachleader Dumal last stepped in their Thunderhawks and left. The last we saw of the Astartes was their ship illuminated by the explosion of the "Lady´s Vigilance."
Main hangar of the "Boneyard", Os Vulturis plunder ship: "Gryph accompanies our new brother to the infirmary." Informed Baelyn Breachleader Dumal. "Good, we have to be sure that his body can handle the trials ahead. Dekra? What did we get?" "3 STC´s, unclear of worth, substantial amount of data gathered from prime cogitator before Inquisitorial codes eradicated them. Additionally, this." She stepped closer, a Spirit Stone in one of her mechandrites, "It is...", she searched for the right word, "...empty." "Good. Put it in the Vault until we are home. There is someone who needs it."