Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm
"In the beginning years of the Great Crusade, I found myself often left behind the main fleet to clean up the messes John either left behind himself or didn't want to deal with. While this did give me plenty of time to work on my own projects, a very special one in particular, I grew tired of not being able to search for my sons. Still, those were rather peaceful years and I miss them more and more each time I think on them."
Lost journal of Empress Lilith Potter, Mother of Demigods
(Lilith)
It had been proven to Lilith many years ago, back when she was still nothing more than a young woman being guided by the hands of a man that had already walked the earth a thousand times over, that John no longer required something as time wasting as sleep. Not when his own vast powers, powers that few both then and now could ever hope to match, could keep his mind awake and without the mundane need of rest. She even remembered the night she'd asked him if one day she too could go without sleep, even as the darkness came for her yet again, for that was the first time she'd ever heard the yet to be emperor laugh.
It was a laugh that came from his chest and rumbled the very air, but it was more true than anything she'd seen from him up till that point.
It was also no more than five hundred years after that moment, long past the death of anyone she'd been friends with, that Lilith's power had grown to the point that she to no longer needed the simple luxury that was sleep. She was free to pursue her goals without the need for long term rest, even if simple breaks every now and then did lead to some much needed ideas, and it was this great ability that would continue to insure Lilith was able to advance her own knowledge so quickly. Such as at this very moment as she reacquainted herself with the ancient warships that Mars had kept far out of Terra's grasp for quite some time.
More specifically it was to be a ship soly under the command of Lilith herself, a twin ship to the Emperor's own that had been hidden before the great fall and only brought out after Terra was once more united under a single flag. A now named Gloriana class battleship, Lilith consented that the name was the only real improvement the cult of mars had made, that was newly given the title of The Apollyon. With thousands of working souls, operating in around the clock shifts to insure the beast of a ship would always be ready for sudden orders, the Apollyon was a fitting name for such a mighty destroyer; the sub religious meaning also brought a bit of a smile to Lilith's face.
Stretching no less than twenty kilometers in length, the amount of weapons that lined its hull was firmly ridiculous and bordering on ludicrous given the situation. It was overkill in every sense of the word, housing missiles, lance cannons, Macro-cannons, Laser turrets for point defense, and void shields: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The sheer amount of manpower required to operate a ship of its size was like that of a small city and that wasn't including the thousands of servitors meant for only the most dangerous or menial of tasks. It was a vessel made for only one thing: total war.
"At the peak of our power, this war ship was considered little more than an escort vessel and an outdated one at that," Lilith said to the red robed priest that operated the console next to her, spider-like limbs stretching out from the creature's back to operate other such stations like some demented from of a puppet master.
"Your biological condition signifies you are no more than twenty-fives standard years of age. How could you have such knowledge of our glorious past?" the priest's voice was modulated, even if it had been slightly female in nature, and the mechanical limbs never even so much as hesitated in their individual tasks.
"Because I'm old, child, older than your cult of machine worshiping psychopaths, old enough to have lived in a time before your precious machine spirits infected every bit of our technology like some plague virus. To be forced to appease the spawns of lesser imaterium creatures that come from the great storms," Lilith grimaced, her face twisting as if she just ate something truly bitter.
"Such a statement would see your physical form terminated and melted down into sustenance; to insult the great machine is unthinkable."
Lilith simply turned around and stalked away, regretting it even more that they hadn't just crushed the cult under their boots and taken the war machines.
The robed priest on the other hand, so captivated by her work, failed to notice the shadow looming over her fragile form. Just as she failed to realize how soon her worship of the machine god was about to come to a bloody end. In the end all she could do was let out a silent scream as a blade, as large as any full grown man, bisected her augmented body with the ease of a hot knife through melting butter.
No one would find her and she would be replaced before the day was out.
(Lilith)
Nearly three weeks after first laying eyes upon what was to become her own ship, freshly armed and fully operational, Lilith was finally escorted aboard by her own group of Adeptus Custodes given to her by John so that she may always be protected. Not that her friend's greatest loyalists could protect her any more than she could herself, but it made him feel better and Lilith knew people tended to listen when the mighty golden warriors were flanking her.
Shield-Captain Marcus Theseus Aeneas, who had hundreds of other names carved within his golden Auramite, was as mighty as any other of his kind, but Lilith found he was more of a builder than anything else. With his Praesidium Shield held with one arm, far too heavy for any normal human to ever hope of lifting alone, and guardian spear in the other, the transhuman giant was like something out of ancient legend. This was doubly enhanced by his fellow red cloaked brothers trailing behind him in perfect step, each wielding shields of their own, while he himself walked just to Lilith's right.
Artorius, Hektor, Janus, and Romulus were a band of Custodes that bore the responsibility and honor of being of the Sentinel Guard. Their strength lay in their absolute defense, trading in the flexibility of their spears for the sturdiness of their shields and reliability of their sentinel blades. So it made absolute sense to them why the Emperor of Mankind, their master in all ways, would put them before all others when it came to the defense of his most valued friend. As long as they lived, they would not allow Lilith to come to any harm.
It was all very inspiring, but far too dramatic for her taste.
Upon reaching the bridge of the mighty warship, the halls having been lined with only the most important of individuals to signify the grandeur of the occasion, Lilith was greeted by a swarm of Imperium men and women getting used to their new stations. Their uniforms were all crisp and clean, freshly created for the sole purpose of indicating just who commanded them, and even the new Ship-Master sported a sharp new overcoat; which also held the emblem that would signify Lilith's command.
Ship-Master Decimus was a strong man for being so advanced in age, with the Ship-Master's uniform fitting snugly against his broad chest; in which rested several medals for previous acts of either bravery or cunning. He even stood two heads taller than Lilith herself, the leather boots he wore giving him only a single inch of advantage, and the side arm he had strapped to his thigh said all it needed to about his willingness to fight. Lilith also noticed that the older man had a near permanent stoic façade that she doubted would even crack if the Apollyon itself was being torn apart around him.
"My lady," came the old man's voice in the way of greeting, bowing slightly at the waist only briefly before going back to overseeing his bridge crew, "We should be under way within moments and all decks are reporting their readiness as we speak."
"Very good, Ship-Master. I'm eager to rejoin the armada and see the Great Crusade finally get under way. Now what of the others that are to be under my command?" Lilith asked, moving to stand before the Ship-Master along with her giant golden shadow, the aura she naturally gave off making the man stand just a bit straighter.
"All reporting their readiness, we await your command."
Lilith allowed herself to smile just a bit, "Then give the order, we move to rejoin the others."
The roar of her mighty ship's engines was felt even on the bridge, shaking the behemoth as it slowly tore its way free of Mars' gravity and out into the abyss. Like a mother moving to lead her children through the void, The Apollyon moved to the front of the fleet and settled next to the Emperor's own ship. Finally, Lilith could feel it in her bones, finally she could begin the hunt for her stolen children and none would stand in her way.
(Lilith)
Lilith had forgotten just how primitive and barbaric these rediscovered and renewed ships of old truly were when it came to their weapons and mechanics, for there was no other way to describe the sheer collateral damage their main weapons were doing to the surface of the planet below. It was another human colony lost during the madness-inducing turmoil of Old Night, their frail bodies mutated by the local star's radiation when the weather generators sustaining the thick atmosphere finally ran out of fuel. Their forms were so savaged that, had she not known for a fact that the bastard gods of old held almost no sway here, she would have presumed the plague maker himself had a hand in their changes. Even the planet itself was deemed unsavable and thus the main fleet of the Great Crusade was commanded to cleanse it with fire.
They had regressed into traveling warbands, much like the ones that only recently were stricken from Terra itself, and held no way to truly defend themselves from an orbital bombardment. It was a mercy killing pure and simple, like putting a pet out of its misery when life became too painful, and yet Lilith could feel something stirring in the air despite the calmness. A pressure tingling in the back of her mind, something familiar yet long forgotten like an old book newly rediscovered.
"My lady?" came the Ship-Master's baritone voice, a slight undertone of interest mixed in while his aged face settled on stoic curiosity.
"It's nothing, Ship-Master," Lilith responded, straightening her back and pushing the odd feeling to the deeper reaches of her mind, "How much longer until the mutants are exterminated? I wish to be done with this place."
Turning to a young woman that bore the rank of Captain, the familial appearance between the two being quite obvious to Lilith, Decimus turned back to his superior and gave her an answer that was all together reasonable but not pleasing to hear. A total of five more days bombarding the primitive creatures from orbit, five more days wasted while her sons could be in danger, five more days!
"It takes time to reposition our ships over properly populated areas, if the rest of the fleet were here then it could be finished in only a few hours but, as per the Emperor's orders, that is not the case."
Lilith considered her options for a moment before an idea came to mind; it had been quite some time since the Astarties got to see actual combat, "Continue to concentrate fire on the larger groups alone and then send word to the War Hounds. Supply Ibram Ghreer with all real time movements of the lesser groups and then inform him I want every sentient life on the planet erased in two days.
"Ma'am?" for the first time since meeting him, Lilith saw a look of surprise on the Ship-Master's aged face.
Lilith all but turned and began walking away, only speaking one final command before she exited the bridge with her golden protectors, "Release the War Hounds!"
Not even an hour later and Lilith received word that the Hounds had made planet-fall, their leader pledging to slaughter a thousand of the mutated barbarians in her name for giving them true battle for the first time in months. She, in turn, did as was expected of her position and accepted his pledge. It was honestly a little flamboyant in her opinion, the lengths these Astarties would go to for supposed glory and recognition, but they were technically all her grandchildren and as such were allowed to act out until their fathers returned.
This brief moment of respite from command then gave Lilith a much needed chance to return to her research, of which she was most happy about. Her attention returning to the simple bundle of nanomachines in their containment, having grown much larger and more complex the more raw material she gave them to work with. Now with a more complete head and a half complete torso, the nano-machines had taken the form of a young woman that bore striking physical resemblance to Lilith herself; an unexpected but not altogether unwelcome discovery. The only difference being that the metallic creature was completely naked.
"Has there been any changes?" Lilith asked seemingly no one, the cluttered lab leaving just enough hiding room for a red robed girl to scurry out into view.
The girl had been taken from Mars not two days before she was to receive her first crude implants, a new mechanical arm sticking out her back, to better her daily task of recycling human remains into what they called food. She was a short thing, as all young girls of the age of ten tended to be, and had abnormally pale skin and near bleached blonde hair that had finally been allowed to grow since being away from her superiors. Her designation was some long and annoying code that Lilith didn't desire to recall, though she could if so prodded, and thus she'd been given the name Lucy.
Lilith thought Lucy looked rather adorable with her oversized Martian robes and that all too serious look on her pudgy looking face. Cute enough to simply take and stash in her lab as a new assistant without even informing anyone. She hoped one of those fanatical abominations waisted even just a few seconds trying to find a replacement.
"Statement: Abomination machine has attempted 536,224,996 wireless attacks and two physical escape attempts in the last twenty-four hour period. Recommendation: Throw abomination machine out the airlock," Lucy said in the most flat and lackluster voice a girl her age could manage, seeming to switch repeatedly from glaring at the contained machine and the woman who took her away with the promise of something designated "Candy".
Lilith only smiled and patted the girl on her head, "With thoughts like that it's no wonder all your fellows are so inelegant with their augmentations. Don't worry, little one, you'll learn in time."
I make no excuses as to why I haven't been writing other than a lack of drive to do so. Hopefully this will help me get back to something I genually love doing.