It was a COLD day on the sands of Baal secundus in the year of the emperor, M985, M41 as sister Fecilia of the order of Baal Adepta Sororitas as she awoke to the soft but still loud and echoing morning muster to prayer.
Her order was a more... war like by comparison to the other orders due to the tribal nature of those under their care and purview and would often have to go out to put down tribes that had strayed too far from civilisation and had become barbarous raiders and typically would return to the fold once put back in their places.
Groaning, battle sister Fecilia pulled herself from the sandstone-based bed with straw matting that she had become accustomed too over several long years in her service to the order since she was 10 years old and was now twenty-five. Running her bronze hand through her near buttock length raven black hair as her sight was greeted by her battle sister squads superior, sister superior Mariana, a rare sight on Baal as she was a transfer from the order of our martyred lady and a Terran born, her hair a deep blonde and her eyes a piercing green colour and her accent said to be European from southern franc.
"Madam Fecilia, I must converse with you before sis' mornings prayer." her accent was fairly thick but was picking up the local accent which gave it an almost comical tune to it when Fecilia answered her superior as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and tied her hair back.
"At your behest my lady superior, might I inquire as to the nature of this request?" her carapace port catches on her blanket as she stands up, having two on each thigh and two on her arms and one on the base of her spine and back of her head.
Mariana answers turning her candy metallic red armoured form away from her fellow sister as other squad members were roused from their sleep "that will be disclosed as we walk sister, get into your armour." her voice suddenly turned hostile in tune as she left ahead of everyone else.
Fecilia shook her head at the reply as she got up and threw her crimson- and sand-coloured under robes with a winged blood drop on her back, an honour bestowed on them by Dante himself on the orders founding.
Her fellow sister and squad wielder of the ministorum flamer, a beast of a local woman by the name of Amarah, a dark brown skinned and haired woman with bright blue eyes and covered in a dozen sword scars from the locals during her initiation remarks in Baalian, a language that their superior barely understood.
"Ha! You must have snored a little too loud last night sister" she pats her sister on the back and grumbled a rough chuckle as Fecilia responded by near on sending her to the floor with a solid jab back at her shoulder.
"I'm no louder than you are, I've got to get into my armour, try not to threaten to roast our superior again behind her back you lunatic" she said chuckling back as she walked back to the barracks localised armoury as Amarah groaned a bit from the shoulder jab.
Stepping onto her armour platform as a pale skinned serf rushes up to man the console and addresses her "my lady Fecilia, are you well?" he asks kindly enough but Fecilia responds coldly "I am well enough, make this quick I am expected"
The serf makes quick work of rite of activation and the servo arms began her armouring up sequence starting with her body suit as it was pulled up and onto her body, two servo arms plugging in and initialising the carapace ports before the candy metallic red holy plate was put into place, the plates being locked onto the ports, making Fecilia wince from the shocking sensation of the neural connection.
With her power pack in place and with it allowing her to move her limbs in the armour she steps off the station as said serf handed her powered sabre from the rack of sabres behind him as the warm morning glow of Baals twin suns entered through the stain glass window.
"You blessed blade my lady" he kneels after letting it go into her hands as she stood a full 6 and a half foot tall in her armour and she says a simple yet cold sounding "to your work" before leaving the armoury and started her journey down the halls to the sister superior's barracks, all of the orders squad leaders ordered to sleep separated from their squad mates due to several being murdered in their sleep-in decade's past.
The halls are filled with the orders members and squad leaders on their way to morning prayers with some glancing at Fecilia walking away from the orders chapel and to the barracks superior with her own squad of cavalry sisters looking at her confused with the exception of Amarah who simply winked at her as she strode past her.
Fecilia pases a pair of veteran sisters in charge of the security of the barracks superior, having being ordered by Mariana to stand down to let her past as she was expected, the guardians of the barracks superior exempt from the usual rules of the order as a result of their duty and due to their experience.
Entering the barracks of the superiors a soft smell of incense can be smelt as the veterans and most of them had their own chapel to worship in and hold private meetings away from their squads. Stepping into the office of her own squads superior and knelt before her, her helmet locked to her hip.
Mariana was in her own armour but sat down as she looked troubled as the air went from incense to then a soft almost perfumy smell that has Fecilia feeling... odd as she couldn't put words to it. Motioning for her to rise and sit infront of her.
"sis' is very important, it's about your fellow squad sister's madam Fecilia" says Mariana as she sits back in her chair, her own power sabre on the wall behind her but a bolter pistol on her desk and Fecilia responds after a moment's confusion.
"What is the matter sister superior? Have you doubts of their conviction?" she nearly part tilts her head as Mariana answers with a deep sigh, her full Francish accent coming through and Fecilia can't help but feel a certain pull from it.
"No not at all, it is just the way they look at me during missions, during prayers, during meals and when deployed... it's causing me no small amount of concern, is it due to my being very much new here? Or is it due to some resentment that they dare not give a voice to..." the genuine doubt on her voice had Fecilia herself more than a little worried as she responds in good order.
"I am sure it is apprehension due to an outsider being given command of them, if you fear a blade in your back, I can vouch for my sister's intent, although I must say, some do bare a naked attraction to you sister superior." that response has Mariana raising an inquisitive eyebrow and a very faint flush appearing on her extremely milky pale skin.
"a naked attraction? What is the orders tradition for such things? My own sect had banned it in the name of keeping our bodies pure, although I must be honest and admit that several disregarded this ruling, including myself. I must add that it's yet to be proven to me that a murderous intent does not lie upon them." she asks and responds as it appears to Fecilia that Mariana appears to deeply resent that particular ruling judging by her body language.
"We here in our order embrace our feelings as nothing more than emperor given blessings, often entire squads can be bonded to one another and our wrath is unmatched on the charge, albeit this level of bond is rare." she says trying to alleviate some of the apparent worry on her superior's face.
"I see, well, I still have much to learn of this world and this orders traditions, I would like you to act as my second-hand sisters, which means you will be given ready access to this barracks and my own barracks and be privy to meetings that me and my other superiors attend, understandable no? Is sis' a duty you wish to take upon yourself?"
"With my honour I swear to be your 1st blade sister superior, I will act as your guide and if I may, you have my word that I will report anything suspicious that I discover, and in regards to my sisters possible attraction to your, it is nothing to be concerned with, many of our sisters embrace one another and our serfs on a semi regular basis." she bows after standing up and the response has Mariana reaching for her helmet to hide her growing flush as she then tries to re assert her stern air of authority as sister superior.
"Then follow me 1st blade Fecilia" Mariana's hair could come out and is sprawled through across her back and shoulders through an arcane artificer port on the back of her helmet as she motions for Fecilia to follow her to morning mass but Fecilia finds her gaze met by the bright green eye lenses of Mariana's helmet before she exits the room 1st.
Later on, that morning...
Ater morning mass had been held by the orders canoness cavalry sister squad that Fecilia was apart off was in the orders mess as they were served a diet many were used to but was not the typical bland foods many of the off world born members were used to but the surprisingly lavish spice heavy cuisine of Baal secundus's peoples, maintained by the hydroponics basins beneath the chapter fortress not too far from Angels fall.
Each squad had what the locals called a Dum Byriani dish each, a foot and a half wide clay pot that has its lid sealed by a ring of pastry and it is piping hot with steam coming out the tiniest holes. Once its set down by the serfs, servitors having been banned by the order on its founding, the sisters of cavalry squad 'angels' fist' clasped their hands in prayer, Baalian bloodstone holy pendants hanging from rosary beads.
The sister superior leads the prayer "thank you emperor for sis' food that we are about to consume..." as the prayer goes on Sister Fecilia notes how Mariana tries so very hard to speak like a Baalite but her Francish accent was doing her now favours and a soft snicker can be heard from sister Losara next to her and as 1st blade of the squad she swiftly conks her on the bad of the head and near on growls "show some respect"
Sister Losara throws her a glare as thankfully no one else in the squad heard this or chose not to pay it much mind and the prayer finishes and the sisters all put their rosary's back on and sister Amarah is the one who starts serving the squads morning meal as do the other squads of the orders militant wing.
As they eat the rich, aromatic rice and chicken and various spiced dish, Mariana starts to speak about the squad's task "we are to take our wing out to a border village of the 'blooded' tribe to garrison a hill fort on their behalf as their warriors settle a land dispute elsewhere, sis' is a task from our canoness herself. "
Fecilia looks at her sister superior and says "I am from their ranks, I will guide us through their territory easy enough sister superior" she pulls a mouthful of steaming rice into her mouth as sister Garana, the squad's mistress of the horse, a subset of the ordo hospitaller in charge of keeping the orders horses in order bites right into a spice pod the size of a small peanut and coughed as she spat it out and into her armoured hand, her bionic eye focussing on it.
"I hate these emperor blasted things! Why do we even include them in these dishes, every time we eat, I bite into one of these things" whilst she was a Baalite, she was from the surface of Baal Primus itself, born in the Arx Angelicum to a blood thrall and a serf and a twin sister of two children with her brother becoming a holy astartes of the Blood Angels, being inducted to the 4th company, the 'Knights of Baal'
Amarah lets out a bout of chuckles as she pulls a picked clean chicken leg from her mouth and drops it to her metal platter "ha! Even as a Baalite you still can't handle our foods, the Francish Terran handles it better than you sister"
Garana glares at her fellow squad mate and near on curses her out "silence you horses mare! I will not tolerate this needless mockery from the likes of YOU" she points at her and references the fact that she was from one of the rare tribes of feral on Baal secundus.
Before Amarah could throw a punch at her squad sister Fecilia realises this and grabs onto Amarah with her right hand and then reach for her sabre as Mariana realises, they were speaking in their native tongue as her 1st blade restrains her angered sister saying.
"If you don't stop, I'll have to have you flogged for discipline with the 'cats' paw' calm down, don't provoke If you can't take the blow back you halfwit" she lets go of her wrist and glares Amarah back down before doing the same to Garana as Mariana glares at the three of them.
"Please, be civil sisters, I do not wish to doll out punishments for petty brawling... I will allow this to go by without much trouble, if this happens again, is' the cats paw for both of you, naked." she emphasises the last part to really hammer home the threat.
The rest of the breakfast goes off without a hitch but suddenly a loud thundering voice can be heard as the Canoness enters the mess hall and everyone shoots up to their feet, sending some plates to the floor.
"Everyone outside now! Move."
Everyone makes a hurry to get outside and onto the parade ground as two of the chosen blades of the orders canoness drag a serf out with a broken hand and tie him to the two waist high posts in the centre used for punishments as they had to be very severe as the sisters repentia was also outlawed on the orders founding by Dante himself.
The canoness, a charcoal black skinned woman absent her helmet and with her greying ancient hair billowing in the sandy breeze of Baal she bellows out her roar. "This heretic was caught stealing from my 1st blades's quarters! And when discovered? He defaced a shrine belonging to that sister and attempted to force himself upon her! The sentence is death by lashing by every 1st blade of every squad that is present!" she spits at the ground before punching the terrified serf in the face, sending several dozen teeth flying out in the process.
All of the sisters present are seething with rage as the cat's paw is brought out, named as such for the leather being from a Baalite lion and has a supreme amount of power being able to be forced on it with the whip itself having several bone barbs and poison stingers from rad scorpions, made dull enough to cause extreme pain and rip skin asunder.
Fecilia is up 1st as the thick night cast iron tough leather handle is slammed into her hand by one of the two 1st blades of her canoness and gets a dam good grip as she steps out from her squad and stands behind the tied-up man as he tries in vain to pray away the incoming pain.
Fecilia has only done this once before and she vomited into her helmet as she had managed to rip the guts open with this exact cats' paw la few years ago and it was on a squad mate who drew her bolter on her previous superior.
She rears her arm back and brings it down with an ear piercingly loud crack, making Fecilia flinch a bit as the barbed whip wacked into the skinny serfs back, making his back muscles flex and ripple and tear as he starts to scream out in agony, typically when sentenced to death by the paw each person handed the paw is to do nine lashes each and it goes on until the victim is dead.
Mariana has not had the misfortune of seeing a cat's paw in action yet and it disgusts her to a deep level and is very thankful she had the mind to put her helmet on and thinks to herself. 'sis' is a disgusting way of deal with a criminel... sis' is an afront to the emperor, justice must be carried out properly" Fecilia eventually joins her squad again having torn a chunk of the criminal's skull away with the paw before passing it along.
She puts her helmet on and uses the vox to speak to her sister superior, noticing the visible distress in her posture. "Sister superior, you are distressed, have you not seen punishment?" she asks trying to be polite to ease her visible worry.
"I have! Do not presume an enfant! Just nothing as barbaric was sis! This is horrible to witness, your order does not spare much mercy." she retorts and nearly bellows it over the private vox link as Fecilia grumbles back.
"I am afraid that this is a common punishment as the methods you are used to are outlawed to a large extent, the threat you issued just now to Garana and Amarah? This is what you meant without realising it, in many of our tribal cultures, it is taboo to see another fully naked without being a love of that person, it's a humiliation." says the newly minted 1st blade, an unofficial but recognised title.
Mariana seems to recoil from hearing that as she realises just how little she knew of those under her command and regrets not having studied more before accepting the transfer to the order and visibly sags a bit in her crimson plate as her hair waves in the wind as it comes out of her helmet as the loud cracks continue.
Soon the man is beyond the point of a mangled corpse as a pained wheeze escapes his lips before being dragged off, each sister in range and un helmeted spitting at the floor or on the corpse and the squads return to their breakfast and some get to their assigned duties for that day.
In the orders stables each of the members of the squad 'angels fist' are busy sorting out their mounts, large beasts of the ancient Terran horse, stand four foot wide at the shoulder, s truly titanic beast but they are plenty noble and gentle enough with their sister superior getting a mount known affectionately known as 'Hades' a large black skinned mount with glowing red eyes, a genetic defect of that mount's gene line.
Fecilia decides to mount of a large grey skinned and black maned horse as befitting her rank as the squad's 1st blade and vaults onto her mount and into the large four horned saddle as she is handed her bolter carbine, a custom variant of the Goodwin Deaz pattern bolter, the case for the weapon being longer with a magnetic but plate placed on it to better lock into the shoulder for cavalry use and due to how violent the wind gets of Baal as a whole.
She turns to the left and sees her sister superior mount up on the heavy and often very violent horse and pats the back of its head as she has the hinged top half of her helmet in the upright position to look at her 1st blade and speak.
"You need to guide me 1st blade... I am too ignorant of sis' world, I will see you rewarded for anything you provide, I am trusting you here Fecilia as I cannot know if I can trust your other sisters." she says with no small amount of concern as Fecilia nods to her superior. "Understood my lady, I can guide us there, these were my people once."
And once everyone is mounted up Mariana issue the order to start to ride out of the orders chapter fortress and the whole squadron starts trotting out of the armoured stables and as the main gate opens, the sounds of the day to day and their mounts neighing making Fecilia almost miss the serf trying to call her attention, making her life her helmet's hinged part up.
"My lady! Please, I have a favour to ask of you" the almost skin and bone male serf on a fasting punishment gets an almost venomous response "make this quick"
"I heard that you are to go to the tribe of the blooded... I have a sickly sister there, she is only five years old, could you check on her for me?" he sounds genuinely weak and depressed as Fecilia can feel the gaze of her sister superior upon her as she responds.
"I will make a note of this for you, what is her appearance." she asks of him as the squad is getting impatient and the serf stammers out "she looks like your sister superior with a darker tone of flesh..." and with that the squad depart out of the gates.
Their mounts kick up a huge cloud of sand and dust once they come off the cobbled pathways and out of range of the fortress's guns and sight range without the use on instruments and they ride off into the desert sands.
Once a dozen miles out from their chapter fortress the squad takes a quick stop break and Amarah dismounts to dig in the sands, making Mariana question Fecilia about it "what is she doing?" over the vox network and Fecilia responds "water seeds, often the water seeds are blown off the many desert trees and end up buried in the sands, awaiting those brave enough to dig for them and risk heat stroke."
Mariana finds the motion odd at 1st but otherwise nods to her 1st blade but Fecilia can notice her gaze is lingering longer than usual as she catches a tossed water seed from her squad sister and another to her sister superior as Gariana chuckles to herself "she's got the senses of a shithouse rat for these things." she hefts her one as Mariana pulls her helmet off and looks at the spine fruit confused having never eaten one in her life.
Fecilia uses the neck guard of her holy crimson plate and drags the fruit to break the spines before using her thumb to flick off the loosened spines before biting into the fruit, a pearly white water spilling out of it and into her mouth.
Mariana stares for a moment before copying the action for herself but winces as she bit right into a spine and nearly drops the fruit but fecilia lurches right over the side of her horse and catches it as Gariana says "I haven't seen a Numida dive in person before, where did you learn that sister Fecilia?"
She hands her superior her fruit back before Fecilia answers "I was a horse rider for my tribe in my youth, the Numida were a subset of us lineage and I took the lessons to heart, it takes some getting used to when in this power armour." she half smiles as Mariana looks away embarrassed that she fucked up on the fruit.
Gariana smirks a bit "you have my commendation sister." she nods before joining her other sisters in a water seed search as Fecilia consoles her sister superior "don't worry, I used to pick these spines out of my teeth as a youth, trust me your lucky and did better than I did on my 1st time water seed eating."
Mariana smiles to her 1st blade before finishing the fruit and tosses it aside before putting her helmet back on but as the squad rides ahead, most having the map routes on the helmet HUD's she grabs Fecilia's hand and stops her "thank you Fecilia." she rides off before getting a response from her 1st blade.
Fecilia finds herself stunned by the way she said 'thank you' the tone was completely different and almost purely in her native Terran accent and it was the eye contact that threw her as well, shaking her head she puts her helmet back off and kicks her mount to re-join her squad before she got left behind.
Sometime later that day...
They arrive at the tribal hillfort of the blooded, one of very few fortresses like it on the world and most of the men folk have already left to deal with the territory dispute leaving a token force and the women and young folk behind in the safety of the fort.
Mariana trots up to the gate and speaks in slightly broken Baalian "open the gates! We are the sisters of the order of Baal, here to protect your town!" she bellows out as Fecilia makes ready to clear up any dialect issues.
An old man tumbles onto the rampart and looks down through his gas mask and hood and responds "open the gates! Welcome sisters of Baal... welcome home sister fecilia..." he says as he walks away from the rampart as Mariana turns to her "I see that you still hold some sway here"
Fecilia responds rather flatly "that's because he is my father" she rides through the open gate 1st and circles her mount a few times before swinging her leg over the flank of the horse and hopping down as do her other sisters who take their helmets off.
The older man, tribe elder Talion greets his daughter with a warm smile one he pulls his mask and hood off and down, with Fecilia doing the same. "It warms me to see you so well my blood, come let us talk for a few moments." he pats her on the back of her power pack and she departs with her father into the lead building as sister superior Mariana turns to Gariana and orders "see the horses are well taken care of, and guard them, we may have horse thieves among these people" she whispers to her in high gothic to avoid the use of common of Baalian.
She nods and takes the reigns of her horse and Hades and leads them to the horse stables as do the rest of her squad as a few of the youths come up to the sister superior with wrapped gifts but not being accustomed to how the locals react to the order of Baal recoils a bit, her hand ghosting her sabres pommel and another sister, sister Helena, a sister from one of the other planets in the Baal protectorate but not a Baalian herself stops her to explain.
"They are giving you gifts, calm down sister superior, we are held in nearly just has high of a regard as the astartes, these are likely to be foods or daggers" her own accent was much more akin to the one that is common throughout the Blood Angels themselves.
Mariana takes a deep breath and kneels to accept the 1st of a few gifts meant for her and unwrapping one she finds a Baalite steel dagger, a rare but really high-quality form of steel that only nobility, the order and the Blood Angels could realistically afford to have or make these.
Mariana eagerly accepts it and tucks it into her belt line and locks it in place and moves on to the next one as do the other sisters with Gariana getting none as she scans the horses to make sure they are in good health with her left wrist mounted gauntlet.
"You seem to be in good health as always Hades" she says as she runs her right hand though his main of hair as it snorted at her and is tapped on the shoulder by a fairly tall youth offers her a long hunting lance, an old one judging by the readings her bionic eye give her.
"This was my fathers... he is dead now and my leg is crippled... meaning I cannot ride of march so I have no use of this, it belongs with a true rider" the young teen is almost weeping from the raw shame on his tone as he rests on one walking cane and the other on the offered lance and Gariana lays a hand on his shoulder and grips her rosary with the other.
"You have my word, I will take care of this relic, son of Baal, in the angels name I swear it" she even kneels briefly before taking the hunting lance and watches the smiling teen limp away back to his tent.
Fecilia and her father are in the tribe's main command tent and building, sat down at a desk as they talked over a cup of wine as her old father smiles "what has befallen you since we last met? I seem to recall your sister Superior was murdered in her sleep?"
Fecilia shakes her head slightly as she downs her cup of the local vintage wine "besides getting a new sister superior? And a Terran at that? Not much in all honestly, I still diligently serve the order and the great angel and my sisters watch my back as I do there's, albeit some stare rather intently" she ends on a jest and her father, whilst being of a more conservative mind chuckles at the jest about the orders liberties in regards to love.
"You haven't lost your sense of humour my blood, that Is a good thing, I heard from one of your sisters that you are a 1st blade correct? Appointed today by your sister superior?" as Fecilia fills her cup once more she lets out a sigh as she swaps over to old Baalian to throw off her sisters from eavesdropping with their helmets.
"I do have a few questions for you father, it is something that sister superior Mariana said to me on the way here in fact." she makes sure no one is eavesdropping as her father says in reply "well then, out with it, don't keep an old man waiting, I might keel over any second from the anticipation" he places a hand on his chest and fainnes pain to amuse himself.
"Well, she had said a simple thank you, just that and nothing else, she said it in a way that had me... stunned for a lack of a better phrasing. I left me feeling... warmed, I do not know why, I have only known her for a few scants weeks since she arrived from the Scholar Proginia." she fiddles with her wrists gauntlet to make the helmet play the audio.
once hearing this her father chuckles and shakes his head before sounding more serious than he likely intends with his age and responding "I think you might have missed something there my blood, note how her gaze quickly turned after she said that, notice her blush, I don't I need to tell you my child what THAT means now do I?"
To be continued...