Chapter 2! Here's my disclaimer: I don't own Warhammer 40k in any way shape or form. That honor belongs to Games Workshop and I'm not contesting that! I don't intend to make any money from this and hope that this doesn't get me sued. Please... Different story, same characters, not bound to chapter one. Hope you enjoy.
A Pause in the Air
by Wordbearer
The Emperor's Justice hung in orbit around the desolate world. The strike cruiser's predatory outline was only made more harsh by the stumpy form of the Munitorium transport that accompanied it. Grandmaster Judeas had come to the decision that moral support would be required if unacceptable levels of Grey Knight casualties were to be avoided. There was one solution to the meat-grinder of Imperial warfare that is always available and always expendable: The Penal Legions. Thus, the Emperor's Justice hung Tremonius, the most heavily populated of the Emperor's penal colonies. Inquisitor Daria had suggested the world herself.
On the surface of Tremonius, Daria watched 3,000 convict soldiers from atop a cliff side observation post as they marched to their shuttles and headed for orbit. The thick clouds were periodically breached by ascending or descending shuttles and the air echoed with sonic booms. The lights of the observation post raised glare from Daria's blue armor and silver mask as she silently surveyed the gathering hoard of infantry. The small crowd of military attaches and officers sharing the room with her nervously awaited her response. One particularly bold officer, Lieutenant Craig, asked, "do the soldiers and equipment suit your purposes, Inquisitor?" "They will suit the purposes of my Ordo, well trained as they seem to be," said Daria aloud. She left the second half of her thought unspoken, "trained enough to die spectacularly and distractingly..." The Lieutenant laughed thinly at the assumed compliment though the monotone voice and mask prevented him from gauging its sincerity.
Daria turned around suddenly, the motion resettling her hair onto her back and addressed the Lieutenant, "Has the prisoner been delivered to this location?" Unsettled by the nonsequitor, the officer stammered a moment before responding as an attaché handed him a data slate. Reading from the screen before him, "Prisoner #1804-36-626 has been transferred to maximum security cell #9638 at Gaol Primus under orders of Inquisitor Daria effective 276.M41." "Excellent," intoned the Inquisitor, her slight smile concealed under her mask. "I'll be seeing him now then." Striding toward the elevators and causing the attendant crowd to scatter like a flight of quail, she barely paused as she heard, "Inquisitor! Wait! Allow me to accompany you!" "Of course, Lieutenant. Bring a copy of the prisoner's dossier." Her carapace armor settling as she took her place in the elevator, Daria didn't react as Craig and two shotgun armed guards joined her in the gun metal grey chamber and they began their descent to cell #9638.
The elevator shuddered to a halt and the doors opened revealing a long barren corridor carved from the rock and broken by heavy steel doors. The tunnel was intermittently lit by blinding floodlights, an inconvenience the Inquisitor's mask allowed her to adjust to. The guards led the way to one such door, unmarked and no different from the rest, making as to open it. "Wait," Daria called out, and the guard paused. Removing the mask from her face and wincing briefly as the silvery dendrites coiled back under her hair, she finished, "Now open it." One guard opened the door as the other trained his shotgun into the cell. The door opened and Daria saw a struggling male figure pulled into a kneeling position by a pair of handcuffs bound to cords which withdrew to a hole in the center of the floor.
The Inquisitor raised an eyebrow at the spectacle and Lieutenant Craig was quick to respond, seemingly more disturbed by the judgmental cast of her beautiful features than by the inhuman mask she had been wearing. "It's a security precaution, Mam, to prevent the prisoner from attacking the food servitors." Circling around the orange clad prisoner who hadn't yet lifted his head, Daria inquired, "What has he done to require this level of restraint?" The prisoner looked up at the sound of her voice and his eyes widened as he caught sight of her blue cloak from the corner of his eye. As she moved behind him the Lieutenant responded, "According to his dossier, he was delivered here under inquisitorial authority. Before he was released onto the surface he escaped confinement and killed fourteen guards before being subdued. Inquisitorial orders forbid our killing him." Craig paused and looked at Inquisitor Daria suspiciously before continuing. "He was transferred to the training caverns in the hope that he could become penal legion material...However, there are at least 38 victims to his bloody, ritualistic murders during the three month stay and more secreted bodies are showing up. Eventually he was transferred to solitary confinement where he killed three servitors and was found worshipping over their entrails. He has been under omega level confinement for the last five months." He blinked as if he couldn't believe what he had just read.
Daria's face was unreadable, a strange light gleaming in her grey eyes. Pulling a knife from her waist sheath she tossed the blue-hafted blade to the ground before the prisoner's eyes. He locked an intense stare on the weapon, light reflecting from his shaven head. "Release him from those restraints," the Inquisitor curtly ordered. Craig stammered while the guards tightened the grip on their shotguns, "What?" "Release him. I won't ask again." Nodding in fear, he voxed central control, "Deactivate restraints in cell in 9638." Silence, as whoever was at the other end commented back. He continued sharply, "Just do it. Inquisitor Daria's orders..." A moment later the restraints beeped and fell from the prisoner's wrists and ankles. Agilely he grabbed the knife and leapt backwards. Taking a crouched position, his eyes flashed from person to person. He divided his gaze between Daria's emotionless visage, the shotguns of the guards, and the lieutenant's confused glare. The tableau held a moment before the Inquisitor softly, yet clearly spoke the deadly words, "Execute the prisoner." The air was thick with untapped violence as the guards began to bring their weapons to bear.
The prisoner seemed to blur, his orange jump suit leaving a trail as he leapt at the nearest guard and his knife bit into the man's neck between his helmet and chestplate. The blade sawed through the guard's spinal column as he pulled himself behind the fatally injured man. The other soldier fired his shotgun, but most of the blast was absorbed by his fallen comrade's corpse. Pulling his knife from the victim's neck, the prisoner came in low and sliced the upper leg of the other guard. The guard doubled over only for his gut to meet the knife which twisted cruelly as the prisoner moved on. The lieutenant, who had drawn his hellpistol by now, loosed a shot at the charging figure, but fear and the prisoner's preternatural grace caused him to miss. The lieutenant took a double palmed blow to the chest and was kicked into a rocky wall as he slumped into unconsciousness. Daria had barely moved when she found herself in a choke-hold, the prisoner's shaven chin flush with the shoulder of her carapace armor and his shoulders buried in her thick brown hair.
Daria whispered her voice calm despite the fact that the prisoner could snap her neck at any moment, "Why haven't you killed me yet?" "You die, I die," came the gravelly response from a voice long unused. They both glanced at the frag grenade clenched in her fist, the spring driven spoon depressed by her thumb. "Is it the place of an assassin of the Blades of the Emperor Rampant to fear death, Amahel?" Daria sounded almost challenging and he responded, "To die in the Emperor's service is a holy thing, but to die from an oversight is a crime in the eyes of the Emperor if by doing so you weaken the faith without need." He sounded reverent as he spoke and released Daria from the choke-hold. Daria deactivated the grenade in return, turning to face the long imprisoned death cult assassin who massaged his shoulder with his left hand.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Daria was pointing at Lieutenant Craig, who was bleeding from the back of his head but still breathing. Amahel responded, "It is as much a sin to glut the Emperor's soul as it is to deny the Vulture Lord of Terra his due. Thus..." "Take but a single soul for Him each day if His foes are at rest," Daria finished the quotation aloud and continued, "Third book of Expurgation, verse XXVII. I've missed you during your enforced absence." Amahel stood at attention, his expression unchanging, "It has been a long time. I hunger to do the Emperor's work. The corruption is weak here and unworthy of my presence." "Quite true," she replied, thinking back to the long list of victims and the bodies of sacrificed inmates that were yet to be discovered by the colonial authorities. The gut stabbed guard writhed and began to cough up blood, causing Inquisitor Daria to pull out her bolt pistol and finish him off by shooting him in the head. As the blast echoed down the tunnel, the Inquisitor calmly stated, "Finish your rites, Amahel. I'll be arranging for your release into my service. Don't forget the knife. It was yours originally and I favor my spear." The assassin nodded distractedly as he began carving up the flesh of one of the guards in the complex manner of his brotherhood. Turning around the Inquisitor crouched and grabbed the lieutenant's vox. Walking out of the cell and into the corridor she thought, "Tremonius will provide a rich harvest indeed. Grand Master Judeas will get his cannon fodder penal legion soldiers and I, I get my assassin."
So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a review if you see fit and I hope you don't regret reading this. Thank you for your time.