The Inquisitor

Chapter Seven

I leaned against a wall peeking around it to inspect the street I was crossing yet again.

The bodies were displayed in a ritualistic if not downright methodical slaughter, the eight pointed star practically had been marked with the victims own blood and it never ended. It became a symbolic sense of nightmarish horrors of daemonic intents, it just unnerved me a lot. So I ignored all of it to move forward ever closer to the temple overlooking this city of terror. Explosions racked the outlying exterior of the massive capital as thousands upon thousands were losing their very lives to a Chaos that spread like a plague. My hands gripped the very weapon that once caused my very nightmares to be my very hopes to remain alive and to safe any who needed a holy intervention with this weapon's purpose.

So far nothing but the silent dead were what I encountered in this maddening world.

"Skit any signs of life ahead of me?" I whispered into the vox communicator that my finger pressed to activate it, I crossed this corpse infested roadway in the meantime. My servo-skull familiar had taken to the rooftops to act as a would be scout, or perhaps early warning against any hostiles. I knew what hostiles meant when it came down to crazed people praising whatever insanity condoned this daemonic infested reality. I'd cut down anyone of these cultists given the chance and I heard Skit's monotone respond in it's usual consistency.

"Negative Acolyte Eius. Proceed at your own discretion."

My legs carried me through another alleyway witnessing auto-weaponry casings and signs of lasfire from a variety of sources. It depicted a sudden yet violent exchange of a firefight that had long since been won, or lost for that matter. I passed by the signs with varying degrees of blood, or limbs being torn apart through more conventional explosive means. This entire part of the capital had been cleansed, or overrun during my time knocked out underground. I couldn't help but wonder how many had lost their lives in this uprising against the Emperor and to the Imperium which was a source of faith for all of mankind itself.

I dared not imagine turning from the Emperor's faith, I believed in it enough to know that witnessing this mayhem and utter anarchy of a carnage was no benefit to any person. All this proved to me was to hate whatever fickle daemon lay beyond the veil into the Immaterium. The warp held dangers that were truly beyond imagination from what I gathered now, nothing in my life could dispute that claim. So I inwardly prayed to remain silent to find those who I cared for. Shuffling past another wall apart of a building that had been decimated in seeing bloodied rubble creating a small hill for myself to climb over.

Practically eating dirt, I kept myself from slipping or perhaps tripping over any loose rubble that had been formed during its descent into the ground. I climbed over it to slid down on the opposite slop to continue on my way through this purged out sector of the capital. Emperor's blood I couldn't imagine what had happened once the initial breakthrough came about. How many innocent people were destroyed, murdered or desecrated in a barbaric manner? I grimly estimated hundreds of thousands at the least, but I wasn't kidding myself to know this place became a slaughter house. Rather one in the works and there wasn't a throne damned thing I could do in this situation.

I skidded across a portion of the granite road to press myself against a building's outer wall.

Slowly I peeked around the corner to see yet another empty street.

The only difference this time around was that I witnessed a pile of bodies crudely stacked in an articulate manner akin to making a fort. I bit down on my tongue to avoid hissing out in a rage to see men, women and children all cut open like a sick show. Just to see their faces etched in an agony I had never dreamed, or imagined at all. I swore more then one set of those undead eyes were following my movements when I passed by the two story tall pile of corpses. What a nightmare to see that not even day or so ago this planet was normal yet now it was a slaughter house on a scale not meant to be humanely possible.

Shuddering lightly I used my vox to communicate to Skit, I spoke up a bit quiet yet desperate to ignore the cold chills going down my back. "Skit how much longer until we reach the base of the temple's gates? I haven't see any signs of survivors at all either." Warily I looked to the skyline to see the servo skull floating past the rooftop over my position. Briefly his eye gleamed once while going out of sight towards the destination in mind, I inwardly got myself to calm down after seeing several more bloodied painted eight pointed stars on the streets.

My familiar replied with less then joyful news, "Confirmed. Three city blocks in current position Acolyte Eius. No Imperium citizens detected, or spotted under deteriorating conditions, survival is low and ever more consistent." The static buzz in my ear just made this conversation less then hopeful in any sort of the sense. Shaking my head to ward off a slight headache, I managed to dart across another three to avoid anyone hopefully still around. Plus the very air started to linger of a rotting smell akin to bodies decomposing with a slight fragrance of a sweet fruit.

It really just made my stomach churn violently ever so slightly.

The next five or so minutes I spent trying to search for any sign of human life within this desolate part of the city and it was all for naught. Nothing seemingly motioned for survival for those who weren't apart of this madness openly rebelling and tearing through the heart of reality itself. Only those sickly orange tinted skies that made the sun seem sinister in nature, I felt no warmth and no literal signs of such an orb of fire providing a means to life itself. All that skin could feel was merely the cold lingering despair of a destroyed city. I only could feel a silent despair that leaked off the dead who couldn't defend themselves from this threat beyond the reality of which the Emperor protected from his seat on the throne.

Pressing my back against another wall leading across another corpse infested street, I just had to stop for a moment to regain my control. The smells had gotten worse and it became a hassle to breathe for Emperor's sake, so I took my time. All of the motions to calming down were instilled, or rather taught to me by the Sororitas when trying to allow the body to fully have itself settle down. Slowly but surely my heart managed to go into a normalcy as my stomach did the same, a relief walking in the mists of his nightmarish city was but a small mercy to remain in control. Once I got that settled down I quickly looked both ways through the ever growing misty streets of this capital city.

Absently seeing Skit floating across the street over the rooftop looking down onto my position, I swore his mechanical eye flashed a bright red. "Here we go again Marcos. Stop wasting time, you know every second you waste, Sister Anora or Theresa might be dead." I whispered harshly to myself when I sprinted across the granite route without pausing in my thoughts. My flew across the open gap to continue on the way to the temple whose gates were just beyond the next block over. Sighing a relieved in remaining undetected, I knew this was the easy part in just getting to the temple's ground themselves.

That harder of this insanity of a plan would be getting inside to do three things hopefully.

First as my important goal, was in to save any of the remaining Sororitas who were either half dead, or Emperor knew what they were being inflicted with. Praying for their protection and survival, I bit my cheek to get my legs moving a bit quicker while scanning the alley way in front of me. Rubble, blood and a few pieces of large concrete stones were somewhat in far, or between my spacing. The shotgun remained level in front of my movements, I desperately made sure nothing seemingly followed from behind me as well. Thankfully much to the Emperor's mercy, I only witnessed a silent darkened city at the forefront of my back while moving.

Second goal of this insanity was really in trying to stop the Warp-Rift.

I had no idea and I believed that without Tartarus...

I'd have no chance to close, or seal it.

And finally this was my last goal of this plan, one I so looked to be expectantly towards.

I'd destroy an cultists in my way without hesitation, I'd blast them away with these holy slugs provided by Tartarus to destroy them. The rage inside my heart and mind alike were still very fresh from those visions, or dreams I had. It was what I felt for these fowl monstrous creatures that turned away from the Emperor's light and I'd damn my soul into the Warp to not get even with them. I swore it venomously while ducking under a piece of steel jetting out of a building's wall, "I'll kill as many of you as I can. It'd do the Emperor justice to see heretics such as these animals to be cut down. If not for him I'll do it for Jane, I won't be a coward ever again."

I crouched down when I came down to the main bulk of a road leading up near the temple's gates, I reached my destination. Skit hovered directly over my head on the rooftop overlooking the gate up into the main grounds of the Shrine and I heard him inside my vox communicator. I gulped down any surviving nerves in the meantime, "Presences detected ahead Acolyte Eius. Two human shaped forms standing guard. Remaining on over-watch until otherwise directed." My eyes went to the two stone structures which served as the barracks, or guardhouses for whatever reason. I could hear laughter from my spot in which I made the choice to see why.

Yet I replied to my servo-skull, "Understood Skit. Thank you."

Clutching the weapon close to my side, I made my way up to the side of the structure to hear gleeful laughter and screaming. The screams were of a feminine tone and I inwardly steeled my resolve to at least peek through one of the glass panels peering into the said building. Despite the pieces of glass which were stained in blood splatters, the dripping droplets fell past the gap and onto the ground. Somehow I managed to find a clear enough portion for my eyes. Gulping down any hesitations I managed to look inside and my face went from a stoic resignation into something much more potent.

Anger?

No this was fury.

And a fury that burned inside me like a raging inferno.

"You sadistic fecking animals!"

Two cultists dressed in clothing akin to those I saw in the dreams I had were openly violating a woman. She had the uniform of the local Planetary Defense Forces and they were practically rags in having her chained to the wall. Metallic cuffs were cutting into her wrists as the cultists whipped, dragged knives or even openly gorged themselves on the victim. She was being raped, I knew without a doubt and they were singing praises to their Dark Prince whose very presence shifted the face of men. Allowing myself to feel this burning anger, I thought to myself to make sure if there wasn't anymore inside the building apart from the three that were visible.

Dropping the thoughts of the steel wall to mute the whispers, I allowed a floating sensation to drift out to sweep into the building. It was like imagining a picture of what was inside and I only felt three pings per say. Two had twisted purplish outlines bordering onto a dark crimson red and the other was a sorrowful blue as if crying out internally to stop this savagery. I felt so many emotions that weren't my own flood into my very cortex of a brain I held within my skull. The tears were leaking down my cheeks before I had the chance to stop them, I could only feel this sadness and shame that were threatening to consume my very will.

Gritting my teeth I got my weapon prepared as I stared into the burning remnants of a city, I saw only red at this point. My jaw went rigid when a strange yet cold surreal peace floated over into my body. It wasn't dramatic, nor was it some epiphany or anything akin to that special. I just started to shake my head when these feelings of the woman inside the building were flooding into my very being. Someone literally gave me a window into what she felt and I absolutely would oblige this natural hatred of people to a simple statement, "Oh you bastards are so fecking dead!"

And at this moment...

I would only feel a strange sensation of a cold satisfaction.

I stood up walking to the doorway to see bodies upon bodies stacked in corners of either gender, I saw children my own age if not longer. Each of the corpses based on the age were cut up beyond any facial recognitions, I hardly could tell what was what and what limbs belonged to their owners. Genders were visible through the lack of clothing to determine men, or women if they hadn't been defiled in such manners akin to the events in front of me. Sliding through the doorway, I managed to briefly close the metallic door to the point where I'd see anyone try to get in. However underneath the window that I peaked into lay a table somewhat full of unused grenades, or some sort of charges with inactive timers located on their surfaces.

The darkness of the room and the little natural light filtered into the building as it concealed my entire form with the black like cloak I had on.

"Say our god's name girl! Come on, it's not hard, you just say the name and all this pain becomes your greatest pleasures. Every single last one of you lot PDF cowards have converted, you're the last one and it's always a pleasure to indulge." I heard one of the cultists saying gleefully as his companion defiled the woman while he stood watching. No reply came from their victim as I kept my face straight even though an urge to snarl angrily nearly tore from my throat. I'd enjoy these next few moments when I heard a shaky if not downright defiant retort to the demands.

"Emperor take your soul and damn it! I will not be apart of you fowl heretical usurpers of the Imperium!" The woman snarled back while trying to in vain struggle to kick off her assailants, I gave this woman a look akin to respect. Rape victims were frequent in the hive city I lived in, both boys and girls alike told tales of those shady people who took them into the dark. Jane even mentioned that to me if a random stranger offered a grox burger, I'd say no and haul ass out of the same area. Yet I ignored those past memories in favor to check the rest of the building out, I saw no one else but those three in the corner room.

I finally got ever so closer that I was standing roughly five paces away from them both.

"That false god? He's nothing more then a corpse waiting to be out of his misery, the Great Prince and the Dark ever lasting Pleasure is what makes this faith so worth it. Perfection is just waiting for you and all the pains you had in life are pleasures for eternity." One of the men ranted angrily yet almost happily when he stepped forward with a jagged knife. He flipped the blade to have it face the woman and I swore I could see my face within its confines in the dim lighting. I crouched down to brace for the recoil of my weapon which steadily took aim.

As the man advanced his companion pulled out of the woman, he wiped away the sweat forming on his forehead. It left a perfect window and the cultist with the knife "I'll personally enjoy carving the Star of Chaos into your chest girl, I swear you'll feel all the pain and the utter..." No more words were needed to be said and I had the intent all set to go. Not one of these bastards would leave this place alive, I'd swear it or the Emperor could damn my soul to the Warp for being a coward yet again.

I pulled the trigger.

And in doing so...

I was sending the man's skull and brain alike splattering over the walls.

Twisting over to the right the other cultists watched as his comrades headless body fell to the ground. He screamed in a warning as I ended his life within seconds, I felt the ejected shell of the weapon sting my face briefly but I had a grin in place. "Hey feck head! Sorry to break your spirit but I think the Emperor disagrees and I'm just carrying out his will. Burn with your chosen god you son of a bitch." I hissed out gleefully as the fires of vengeance surged into my veins as a result. The surviving cultists roared out in rage as I sent him to his death with a fist sized hole through his chest.

He fell to the ground screaming in a terrible yet rightly earned agony.

Standing over his thrashing body, here I sent another round into his skull as well to have the brain matter scatter onto the bloodied floor. I stood over him feeling a great sense of achievement yet it felt hollowed to know so many died and none had the chance to return the favor. Reaching into my pocket to reload I looked over to the shackled woman who seemed to be looking at me as if I were a figment of her imagination. The outline around her shifted from a sorrowful blue to lightly faded out white coloration followed by a tint of green. Plus her eyes were wide with confusion and a dimming emotion that dare I'd say it to be hope?

I finished reloading my weapon when I walked over to her, I didn't know what to say. The cuffs hanging her on the wall were cutting into her wrists, I figured to do the right thing to get her out and pray to the Emperor for a solution. Kneeling down next to one of the gushing headless corpse, I noticed a set of keys matching to the crudely adapted shackles binding the soldier to the wall. Setting down the shotgun and it's still smoking barrel, I used the hidden knife to cut the leather off the cultists belt. Absently his clothing matched similarly to the woman on the wall, I dared to imagine he betrayed her or something alone those lines.

"I'm going to get you free, so please don't try to attack me. If you don't believe me for it, well you're welcome to yell all you like." I said to the woman while leaving my hand away from the weapon the ground, the soldier had a clear enough mind to realize my intent. I even hid the knife back into my cloak to leave my hands clearly unoccupied by a weapon, her eyes were tired yet resolved to defy any signs of the heretics faith to remain true to the Emperor. "Who are you kid?" She weakly asked as I offered a small smile as if a bit confused to reply.

I wanted to say exactly who I was but Tartarus didn't want anyone to know I was apart of the Inquisition.

So settled on a half truth just to relieve her and myself, "A visitor to the planet. I'm with my mother who was instructed to inspect the planet based on a High-Lord of Terra. She went to the governors palace and I was on my way back to the temple, I don't know if anyone I know got out of there." The soldier groaned in pain when I unlocked the cuffs binding her wrists, her face seemed less in pain now but I managed to support her before she feel. The weight caused me to hiss out straining to set her down with having my face plant first into the concrete floor.

When I got her to set down she replied back weakly, "The palace? Kid I hate to say it but that was the first place that got hit apart from the capital." Glancing around I tried to find a blanket, or something to to cover her tattered chest area. My eyes settled onto a coat of sorts as I flung it over to cover the wound as the soldier hissed out yet managed to be grateful for the gesture. Honestly I had no idea in how to patch, stitch or treat those wounds that were making her suffer who knew how much agony. Perhaps if I made it out alive, I'd ask for lessons to treat wounds outside of an infirmary, I'd wager that the Emperor would be pleased to know how to save a loyal subject of his Imperium.

"This whole city has gone to shit." She continued as I picked my shotgun back up to help her get comfortable against the wall. Her limbs were shaking even when she tore off portions of her uniform to make bandages to cover her wrists. I even helped her in holding one limb flushed out and even in her pained state this soldier managed to stem the bleeding of her own body. "Within the first hour of contact with these maddening heretics, I can say we lost hundreds of thousands of both PDF and civilian lives alike. The these things came out of nowhere, they were men yet they managed to do unworldly acts to seemingly phase in or out of reality to avoid lasgun fire. They were twisted, disfigured as they screeched out words in..."

I interrupted a bit hesitant yet I could take a guess in what she was describing, "In a way that gets you uneasy? Scared? That their voices can't sound even naturally human?"

Just by saying this to her while adjusting the makeshift blanket over her, I swore her eyes were piercing my own orbs. In a way this seemed eerily similar to Tartarus but not as dangerous, well dangerous in other ways yet the point of the matter was that I felt uneasy. However she broke off the glare to shift herself uneasily against the stone wall. So I searched again for anything to support her back. Nothing inside this place seemed to be for comfort as I noted the varying degrees of tortured corpses blocking the views.

"Yeah. That says its all, I swear to the Emperor and his throne that I lit them up. Crazy bastards cut down a whole platoon's worth of men in a minute." She muttered briefly when I glanced back over at the doorway to see a faint glowing. A bit wary I moved over towards the door to peer through it to see that the skies had grown an ever more sickly orange. A shimmering veil seemingly lifted over the temple as the statue of the Emperor started to erode at the height of its apex. My eyes looked to the temple and the slim hope of finding any surviving Sororitas. "I don't have much time do I? What should I do? Contact Skit and find a way to save this person's life, or continue onwards to find the others? Throne of Terra, what a mess I'm getting into now for sure."

Unfortunately my curiosity made the person who I helped ask the obvious question.

I had the impression she knew I was lying and it got me worried because I just fecking sucked at it. Her tone brokered no room for humor, "Things are getting worse out there, right? Not once in the history of this planet's conception, or my own experiences have seen a sky bleed orange. This is sorcery at its worst and no human of the Imperium can be responsible for this insanity!" Technically she wasn't wrong but neither was she right, I couldn't dispute either claim to not give away my position. Tartarus was going to kill me for this stunt but I'd at least do it right, if such a notion could be assumed and by the Throne it sounded ridiculous.

"Yup. Sky glowing orange, weird creatures and people going nuts. What's not to be worried about?" My resigned shrug made the soldier stare at me more curious now. Perhaps the lack of any emotional ties to this place, or rather my personal goal to achieve had given me away. I didn't even realize in saying that rather humorously had creaked a crack in my newly minted armor of cover. I'd give her the praise of the Emperor to know she called me out on this within the next minute in revealing the sarcasm in its true base.

"Who are you boy? Every child I've seen and know I've know screamed bloody murder at what's been happening. Everyone ran like water being diverted into a drain, so what gives? What in the name of the golden throne are you doing here and by all accounts you shouldn't be alive." She sounded defeated in the sense of trying to make sense to this madness and I didn't blame her really. I tried to understand the fact that something, or someone beyond what I've seen in reality was literally hounding me. Tempting me, gloating me or doing whatever it wanted to get my attention to the point where it made the migraines worth it to keep it out.

Yet if she wanted to know me, I'd ask her the same for sanity's sake alone.

"You first. My mom never liked me speaking to strangers." Using the cover stuck true as the soldier snorted almost amused at my grin. Still she did return the question with an answer, "Captain Irene of Mastora PDF and currently semi-retired Elysian Drop-Trooper. Not that I'm not grateful kid, but thanks for kill these two sacks of flesh. Someone finally answered the prayers I've been saying for years." The gruff woman cracked a smile despite the situation she was currently in, a feat in its own right if I dared to say.

Yet I tipped my hood in a respectful gesture to the soldier.

Though I had no idea in what she did apart of being in the PDF but I wasn't going to ruin the somewhat civil mood.

"Marcos Eius. Current son of Jalena Tartarus and hopefully not a soon to be deceased one either." I joked near the end to make the soldier grin knowingly. Tartarus was going to kill me for sure when she'd realize I disobeyed her orders to get out of the city, "And no problem. Honestly you're the first person I've met today who isn't completely weird, or just flat out crazy." I spoke the truth in that regard and the woman grunted trying to steady herself to stand. I waited from my spot watching the outside leaving the captain to do what she wanted, if she could get on her feet, then I'd give her my support in the prayers to the Emperor as well.

As much as I looked to the main pathway leading upwards to the plateau, I got interrupted midway in imaging what I'd fine there.

Irene asked me almost seriously to the point where I knew she knew I lied to her about my intentions here. However she still wanted answers to someone who did save her life and I listened. She spoke up while gesturing to the outside through the window, "What are you hoping to do here Marcos? Any sane person would have high tailed it to the eastern seaboard to catch a shuttle off-world yet here you are. In the middle of some maddening infested city with sorcery running a muck."

My eyes dropped when I muttered a reply, "To save my friends. People who I care about and I'd not live with that shame again to watch someone I love be torn apart. So I figured to get up here to find out if anyone's alive, if so, try to do something and if I die." I looked to the gruff looking woman who stared at me akin to surprise. A silent surprise and I offered a resigned smile, "If I do get to see the Emperor when I die, I'd say I'd at least die happily. Crying doesn't do a fecking thing as much as I've already know, I mean I cried for a person who was with me for all life."

Even now tears fresh for other reasons were just adding to the internal misery. Oh feck me I knew it'd be easy to cry but it was harder to stop. Shaking my head I kept them manageable to ignore the pain, I needed to be strong in the present and the recent past had only taught me to just deal with it. No one cared for loss and Tartarus never gave a damn to begin with, so I'd be the only person to remember my best friend. Inhaling deeply I looked up at the solder while idly feeling a single tear drip down my chin, I just offered a resigned posture.

The woman slowly got to her feet while deeply inhaling to steady herself, I witnessed a person somehow cope with all that pain they were in before my very eyes. She clearly wasn't comfortable but she managed to shakily walk at first out of the tortured confines of that room to sit at the table in where the arsenal of explosives were at. She sat down while lifting up one the las-rifle weaponry assortments tossed onto the side of the said table as if it were thrown away. All the while checking the weapon for any signs of broken cracks, or components that I'd never guess to exist. In the end she slapped a power-cell into the weapon after checking it via ejecting its entirety, I could only fathom in what mystery she did this for.

"Ironic that grown men act like little spoiled brats when faced with dangers they can't grasp yet a child acts more of a man to save those he cares in the face of the very same dangers." She set the now functional weapon in front of herself on the table. I noticed both amber like eyes staring at the orange sky for a moment just before turning to me, "Marcos right? I don't know why your here on Mastora and I don't care why you want to keep it a secret. Emperor protect me but I can offer you my services to shoot a weapon, I can't in good mind leave a kid like you here alone and to rub dirt in the wound, you did save my life." While the lack of light inside the room made her face barely visible, the outline surrounding her body from a pale green to a somewhat brighter white. That meant she thought positively about me in her general thoughts, I still had to figure out what those coloration meant when this was over.

I had gotten sick of second guessing myself and I wasted enough time here as it was really.

"I can't tell you what to do or not, but at least I'll have someone with me. Any ideas in how to clear out a large group of cultists if we see them in the main cathedral?" I asked the captain who looked to the table to tap the unused grenades. She offered her insight on what was available and quite frankly I praised the Emperor for giving me a means to take out as many of those heretical bastards as I could have done. "Standard frag grenades are going to do the trick for any large amount of enemies, I'd say we have enough here to clear a small building. Plus we have more then a few power cells for the las-rifle I got on hand, thank the golden throne for that, not to mention we have these bad boys ready for usage as well."

She pointed to square like devices with the timer panel, I looked down a bit curious.

As she explained I whistled out in shock, "Melta charges used for survey teams for mineral deposits. Not as strong as the Imperial Guard's standards but enough to make a big bang when needed. Overall this will clear a whole platoon if not several's worth with the proper directions." I noticed a bloodied bag of sorts stuffed next to a few corpses, I exhaled sharply while yanking it free of the nerveless limb. Setting it down on the table I offered a grim smile, "Well it's a start for something good. Although Irene can are you going to be alright because of what just happened to you..." My hand pointed to her abdomen and the other such details that the two rapists were doing to her. I didn't need to explain what since the idea wasn't exactly old news at all.

The woman knew what I meant while offering a shrug, "If I were fertile or capable of having a child Marcos. I'd say I'd be a lot worse off but taking a sharp object to where my womb was located at, well I say being able to be amongst the living is a price to pay. Besides if they had slipped up, I'd have found a way to cut their throats and tear off what made them men, all with a knife or a rusted nail." Inwardly my body tingled in a natural warning to curl my legs. Shuddering briefly at how wickedly vindictive this woman seemed, I just offered a small nod at her imaginative methods of doing an on the fly field surgery.

"I guess something good can be done in a world full of madness." I said rather plainly to which the soldier snorted almost bemused. Her hands were filling the bloodied bag with all the explosives and the charges in an eager manner, "I'm just a bit lucky Marcos. Lucky for you to have heard this commotion or else I'd be tortured until I was dead. Least I can do is offer to help you to do some real good in killing these bastards as much as we can." I didn't get why she seemed so eager but the blood thirsty in her eyes made me less then at ease. She seemed all the more eager to get back at the insanity that threatened to destroy this world and to be fair, I had to ask myself a single question.

Was I any different then her to get back at these sons of bitches?

"Also while I was a captive here, I overheard some of them bringing survivors or anyone captured to the temple. Something about be rewarded or recognized to be a champion of whatever the feck they're into out here." The former Drop-Trooper stated a bit concerned as I inwardly remembered the memory of the cathedral's interior. In having dozens upon to hundreds of heretics going insane over the fact of sacrificing the Sisters of Battle to their Prince, or whatever the feck they thought of it. In the end I waited while scanning the outside for any movement of any kind and nothing came up.

Yet I simply pressed the vox-communicator in my ears to reach my servo-skull familiar, "Skit. Has there been any movement since myself entering this building?"

The answer I got should have made me feel safe but all it did was feed an ever growing chill inside my stomach. "Negative Acolyte Eius. No signs of life detected and standing by over your location. Shall I attempt to re-establish communications to Inq..."

My voice spoke up loudly to block out that last word, "No Skit! That's fine, I just wanted a heads-up on if anything heard the shotgun go off. Continue scanning and I'll give you the go-ahead to follow myself up to the temple's main entrance. Thank you though for trying but I doubt it's going to work with the rift so close." I had to tilt my head away from the woman who had been intently staring at me. She heard some of the conversation for sure but I kept the more required important details concealed, I'd rather have my Inquisitorial teacher not try to kill me immediately for sure now.

The soldier packed the bag and slung it over her more preferred shoulder just as she tided up her belt line. My eyes were averted to have a shred of modesty and respect to not stare, I didn't want to imagine what in the Emperor's name this woman felt now. It was bad enough I picked up on the mood minutes prior, I heard her speak up a bit thankful at my posture. "Thanks for the privacy kid. Not required but it's a good thing to see even youngsters like you can behave, so keep that habit up and you'll be a magnet in the future." The woman's sweaty yet pale face didn't ward off the gratefulness inside her orbs. Even while she put her helmet which was a battered PDF helmet of sorts with a single emblem of the Imperium of Mankind on it's frontal exterior.

The wings of Aquila were plastered in a golden crest and the wings encompassed it's base with pride.

I opened the door to step out while looking up to see Skit hovering over the rooftop scanning the area with his mechanical eye. So I looked to a few found ally and hopefully another friend, I said to Irene with a resigned voice, "A magnet? For trouble I bet, if this is any given indication. I don't even know what in the Emperor's name is going to be waiting for us up there, so don't get ahead of ourselves please."

With her weapon raised to her eyes, the soldier moved quickly outside but not before smiling down to me on the way past. She offered a piece of advice that left me puzzled, "A magnet for trouble most boys your age will kill for Marcos. Just keep doing what you're doing and I guarantee growing up will do the rest." Her smile wasn't merely for humor but of a truth that lingered in my own future somehow. However in the end I just shrugged while following the more experienced soldier into the gardens littering the sides of the main roadway leading to the shrine at the top of this terrain itself.

We'd stick to the more densely packed foliage for cover and concealment, I wasn't going to be spotted on an open road leading into the heart of a created Warp-Gate and I'd damn myself to not be an easy picking for these daemons. Yet in the back of my mind I heard a faint whispering, a very familiar one at that as well.

The kind that made my spine tingle in a warning.

What I heard caused me to stare up at the temple as it got closer, "Come out, come out wherever you are little one."

And I whispered back mentally, "Who ever said I was hiding! So play hide and go seek all you want. I'll find you one way or another, I promise you that. Bitch."

That only made a giggling echo in my ear as I moved onwards.

"I'm looking forward to it, my sweet little Marcos."

End Chapter Seven

Author's Note: Leave a review, I really want to see more please and I'd be much happier.

There is nothing wrong with a slow build up into a conflict, I will say slow buildups make the suspense and the action all the more gratifying instead of blindly rushing into it. More so in this sense of having the first mission, experience and effects of daemonic influences creeping into a psyker's mind through his exposure to it's whispering tendrils. Chaos as a whole is to corrupt the living mortal shells of those in reality yet each individual patron god has it's own unique whispers for those to pick up on it.

Apart from that I bet someone is asking themselves: why have him encounter a survivor?

Marcos is just a kid, a really driven child but still one at heart. He couldn't resist, or rather would not ignore the plight of anyone in such a position given the tools he has at his disposal. However as much as he is driven to do something noble yet kind of fool-hardy at it's core. He's a kid and he's not a one-man army hell intent on defeating hordes of daemonic entities or chaos corrupted heretics. Limits are what drive humanity to shatter them into the next dimension but right now, his growth is dictated on encountering and surviving to do what he can to get whatever results he needs to improve upon his base.

And to be fair, I saw a window.

Just I did have an opportunity to expand upon a bit into the specializations of the Imperial Guard (or if you want to be that technical, Astra Militarum) and having Elysian Drop-Troopers isn't really impossible. Once they get cycled out of rotation for active service, the Drop-Troopers can be assigned or request new units to retire in. Not to mention in the lore the PDF (Planetary Defense Forces) are based on the local governments usages to remain to defend the planet. Basically they're some loose Militia who are used for whatever means and rarely are they any good, expect on well known Imperial Guard planets like: Elysium, Cadia and etc.

So hiring retiring or any professional Imperial Guard Officers to oversee the PDF on any Imperial Planet is not impossible according to the crazier events in Warhammer 40K. Still my point is I like Imperial Guard and having a means to expand it without going overboard, it's fine in my book.

And what more do you want?

Blood?

Because that's coming up anyways.

So that's that.

Again please leave a review if you want to make me feel happier.