A/N: And so begins the Uriel arc! Praise the Emperor! Áuh! :D
Book Two: Corruption's End
Chapter 35: Bringers of War
"I have sworn oaths by the number. I'm bound to the Emperor, the Mechanicus, my family. But when I march to war, the earth shakes, my foes tremble, mountains are leveled and thousands die. When I march, the battle obeys me and me alone." - Princep Yaphet Ben-Hamutal
The glass cage again. Yang hollered and screamed until she was hoarse, desperate to escape.
no no no no no no let me out let me out
She knew it was dream, but she couldn't escape, couldn't wake up. Above her, a searing light boiled away what little air was left to her. Suffocating, she coughed and screamed and wailed as her punches slacked and scraped against the glass.
let me wake up stop this i hate this let me out
Nothing. Nothing worked, and her lungs crumpled, constricting her throat into a straw. Pain filled her, an unending agony that set every nerve alight. The pain was RED RED RED RED LIKE ROSES
Snapping her head around, she saw herself standing outside the cage, bound in the body of a child.
help me
She screamed, but she only sprayed dried blood against her cage. Little-Yang tapped the spattered glass, and it shattered apart, spraying glass into her little braid.
Tears of gratitude flowed over her cheeks, and she reached out for her mirror, her savior. She couldn't reach. Little-Yang just fell farther and farther away, fingers as long as her arm wrapping around her face, the hands languid and pale as a shattered moon.
let her go
Yang bellowed, trying to drag herself from her prison, but she couldn't, her body wouldn't obey, she couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't-
"Wake up, Yang!" Ros bellowed, beating her face with a pillow. Yang's eyes flung open, finding the barracks in total chaos. Klaxons blared, filling the room with a pulsing, red light. Jorvis was screaming.
"Golden Throne, do you all want to die?!" He cried, swinging his chainsword in an effort to corral his soldiers. Mael stumbled out of bed, his foot caught in the folds of the sheets that kept Soo decent. 'Move it, Guardsmen!" He bellowed. "Go, go, go!" Panicked cursing and dressing ensued, almost a hundred half-naked soldiers colliding and bellowing at each other.
"Ros, what the fuck is happening?" Yang said, crawling into her shirt.
"We dropped out of warp early! We're in the middle of a fucking shit storm!" The Ascendant Dawn shook underneath their feet, throwing Caolin and Theni on their asses. A tinny, bored voice spilled out from the speakers.
"Attention, all hands. Decks six and seven are non-functional. Evacuate at once. Gravity generator damaged. Brace for sudden gravitational shifts." The message repeated, muted by the swelling shouts of the Woadians.
"Get to the landing bay! On the double, you stupid savages!" Jorvis bellowed, "Faster, faster! By the Emperor you're fucking slow!" Slipping into her flak armor, Yang obeyed, trying to grab what wargear she could.
Caolin buckled up, sprinting out the door as Jorvis waved him through, slapping his back as he hopped past the bulkhead. Mael was close behind, his hand slipping through Soo's.
"Roriksson, Ufgarsson, good hustle!" Jorvis said, taking count as each soldier passed him. Ros was next, buckling her helmet on when Sarge pushed her through. "Follow the Corporal, ladies! Let's go!" Yang sprinted out, vivid dream long forgotten.
"Attention, all hands," the voice droned, "evasive maneuvers are commencing." Yang didn't have time to grab onto a railing, and was hurled into the the wall when the Ascendant Dawn began a lurching, gut-churning turn. Ros was lifted off her feet, thrown into Yang by the uncaring force of gravity.
"Oof!" Yang coughed, caught unprepared. "Watch your step, fatass." Ros tried to laugh, but the ship gave another pulse of acceleration, one that reversed the pull of gravity. Holding her friend in a death grip, Yang spun around, her aura keeping her legs intact when they hammered against the door to the barracks block. She caught Asgeg too, keeping her from crippling her arm against the bulkhead.
Lorl impacted beside her, his elbow shattering as it prevented his head from smashing open. He screeched in pain, unable to grasp his wound as the Ascendant Dawn pressed him down.
"I'm gonna hurl!" Asgeg yelled above the klaxons, her face green.
"You get it in my hair and you won't make it to the landers!" Yang replied, her voice thin with strain. The Ascendant Dawn righted itself to semblance of normality, although the pull of gravity was still gut-wrenching. The change was not in time to protect Asgeg's weak stomach. Retching, she spilled half-digested amino slurry onto the door.
Yang's hair remained unsullied, much to her relief.
"C'mon maggots!" Jorvis yelled, his hand fixing his beret on his greying scalp. "To the landers!" Some managed an 'aye', but it was sickened and weak. This is insane, Yang thought. Only her huntress training kept her in clear state of mind, ready to pivot mid-air.
Wrapped in a crude toga made from Mael's bedsheets, Soo hauled Lorl into a moving position, pestering him in Ranshan. Mael gave her a quick kiss before joining the rest of Squad F. They shared a brief, knowing nod, before parting.
"Very cute," Jorvis snarled, "now fucking move, jackass!"
Stumbling into the main halls of the transport, they found it choked with their comrades, each shaken and perturbed by the capricious whims of the Ascendant Dawn. Many wore bags under their eyes, their awakening rude and sudden.
Lasguns in hand, they stormed through the halls, jostling and bouncing off each other. Another evasive maneuver tossed them around like ragdolls, and a member of second company was crushed by the weight of his comrades. He died screaming.
Yang was nauseous and angry. She was helpless, and it felt wrong.
It took Gamma Platoon ten minutes to reach their assigned lander. Jorvis was the last one aboard, hammering the door as he hopped inside. It slammed shut behind him, and the interior lights flickered on, revealing a bevy of breathless, pissed-off Woadians.
"Lock and load, Rangers, we are ready-up!" He cried. The reply was singular, deafening.
"ÁUH!"
The Lady Inquisitor's mood was as black as her armor, the disassembled panoply of war packed within a blessed container that sat at the back of her shuttle. The kasrkin accompanying her to the Scythe of Morning felt the irritation and frustration that sat upon her shoulders, shifting in discomfort.
The treacherous nature of the warp had deposited her war party at Uriel safely, but far before her navigators' estimates, as well as obscuring the battle that consumed both surface and orbit. She frowned. No doubt, Josephus has brought battle to Uriel. It cannot be a coincidence.
Compounding her frustration with Josephus was Amat, the assassin cloaked and hidden across the hold.
It had taken years of lessons, manipulation, and careful psychic probing to pry away the Vindicare Temple's steel grip on his mind. His mind, his memories, his personality, locked away from him behind the misted prison of hypno-indoctrination. Her Ace in the Hole could not be beholden to anyone but her - the Lady Inquisitor believed that loyalty was a matter of absolutes.
It had taken four years of careful, meticulous planning, stripping the layers one by one, all that she may forge herself a worthy assassin, freed from the Officio Assassinorum's chains. And then Yang stampeded through the rest like a rampaging goliath, her mind unrestrained and shining like a star.
Telling him of her past. Of Remnant.
She had read the questions in his mind, the doubts that plagued his soul... the sheer madness of the realities that confronted him. That Yang had shared so much so freely drove her teeth into her lip, fury twisting her face into a rictus of red anger.
Darron flinched next to her, staring ahead as the shuttle docked with The Scythe of Morning. Her kasrkin were yet another matter… Darron toed around her with frayed nerves, her outburst on Ranshu shaking him deeply. Many of his subordinates shared his trepidation, and now Loni spoke of Yang's impossible resilience, incredulous and questioning.
"Docking complete my Lady," Chung said, pain coloring his nasal voice. As one, her servants stood, ready to escort her.
"Thank you, Serviceman. Ready yourself for further duty," she said. The descent would be arduous and fraught with danger. "Everyone else, with me. I must don my armor."
Twenty minutes later, she reclined in the armory, splayed on the assembly table. A tech-priest bent over her, cables trailing from his respirator. He had replaced most of his flesh with metal, and apparatuses protruded from him like quills on a boarcupine. Sealing her cuirass shut with the whirr of bolts and sparking arc-lighters, he chanted a prayer to the Omnissiah, a low and constant hum.
As another tech-priest soldered her greaves, needles plunged into her spine, the armor fusing with her nervous system in a crude approximation of an astartes' carapace implant.
"The ritual is completed, my Lady," one red-robed figure hissed, his voice distorted with static and strangled sound bites.
"Full battle regalia this time," she snapped. "Leave nothing behind." The three tech-priests bowed, their extraneous arms scooping up tools once more. With haste, they opened a sealed reliquary, retrieving the remainder of her equipment. They attached her iron halo first, an ebony crown lined with shining platinum and wrought with sterling filigree. Next, they enveloped her face in a vicious helm, its skeletal visage snarling and cruel. Her vision was filled with scrawling text as it integrated with her armor, booting up and screeching binary in her ears.
Lastly, they removed her duster, packing the items it contained into a satchel they hung around her shoulders. In place of her coat, they pinned a billowing black cape, sealing it into place with the smoldering crimson wax of purity seals.
"It is as you requested, my Lady," their leader said, bowing his head.
"Very good," she said, examining their handiwork. No mistakes. No errors. She left her tech-priests, her strides fleeting as they took her from the armory. Like Ira, they had been unable to make sense of the red book she'd found in the Archives. I need Tyrham. I pray to the Emperor he still draws breath.
Entering the bridge, the chatter and commands halted, each officer appraising the Lady Inquisitor as she strode over to the command throne. Ira was there, her power sword in his metal hands. He gaped at her resplendence for a moment before bending his knee and offering up her weapon. She took it, sliding it into its place at her hip.
"You are magnificent, my Lady," Ira said, his flanged voice catching in his metal throat.
"Never before have I donned it all," she explained. "I am an Inquisitor, not a warrior. But alas, war has come to us." Approaching the command throne, she found Captain Barnes in its thrall. A mess of wiring and blinking instruments obscured his eyes, and blood flowed from his lip, which he had gnawed open with clenched teeth. White knuckles gripped the armrests, sinew visible underneath his ivory skin. A host of tubing pumped a cocktail of fluids into his neck and chest, while a cadre of wires fed into his baroque visor. "What's the situation, Captain?" She demanded.
"An enemy fleet is engaged with Imperial forces," he replied, the words harsh and barked. "We outnumber them, but they've managed to land their troops."
"What about our ships?" She asked.
"We are engaged!" He bellowed, his hand slamming a set of buttons. Gazing up at the window that illuminated the bridge, she saw a tangled mess of red lights, highlighting a group of twisted, foul ships. Flashes of light burst forward from Imperial vessels, a silent, thundering salvo.
"The Ascendant Dawn's suffered a hit, but she escaped the brunt of the enemy's fire," Barnes cried. A cannon round impacted against the Scythe of Morning's void-shields, and he flinched at the violation of their sanctity. "What are your orders, my Lady?"
"Get us as close to Uriel as you can, Captain."
"Right away!" An explosion blossomed a klick away from the window, swallowed up by the void-shields once more. "Load the macrocannons, bring the lances online, and move in to assist the fleet!" A chorus of 'ayes' replied in perfect sync. Klaxons and warning sirens howled as more enemy ships pulled away from the engagement. The Lady Inquisitor could only watch as they neared.
"Two cruisers have disengaged Uriel's stationary fleet! They're moving to intercept," A comms officer reported, shouting above the clamor. Captain Barnes grimaced as he steered the ship into a favorable position, blood spurting from his nostrils as the ship gave a lurching turn.
"Macrocannons one through three are ready to fire," the Master Gunner called out, also hard-linked into his terminals.
"Open fire!" Barnes bellowed. The Scythe obeyed, shaking as it discharged its barrage.
"On the way!" The officer shouted. A line appeared on the colossal holo-display, following the rounds as they sailed through the void.
"Two seconds to impact!"
"Ramming speed! Crush the other one!" Barnes roared. The Lady Inquisitor grinned beneath her helm as she deciphered the Captain's plan, bracing herself accordingly.
"Impact!" Two flashes ignited as the enemy's void-shields absorbed the rounds. However, the third one slipped past, shattering the cruiser's hull in a titanic orange blossom. A cheer went up in the Bridge as the image magnified, showing a host of heretics spilling out of the wound in their ship. "Ready lances!" Barnes yelled.
"Full charge!" An officer cried.
"Target their munitions, and open fire!" Forty red lances pierced the void, slipping inside the wounded cruiser and splitting it in two. A chorus of silent explosions ripped it apart before the emptiness of space extinguished them into nothingness. Glowing orange from the Scythe's fury, the repugnant wreckage drifted towards Uriel, meteorites in the making.
The other vessel was fast approaching, their cannons blaring at the Scythe of Morning. Its void-shields depleted, but did not break. As the craft gained, the Lady Inquisitor readied herself. This was the most crucial moment. The enemy cruiser swelled in size as the Captain gave his orders.
"Ramming speed!"
"Aye!" At each kilometer gained, the arch-foe's cruiser grew more repugnant, its hull sprouting gruesome trophy racks and blasphemous words a hundred meters high. She could feel the enemy's hatred in her mind, their furor a bleeding red stain in the warp.
"Crush them, Captain," she said, sneering.
"DEATH TO ALL HERETICS," Barnes bellowed, consumed by the visceral grip of his command throne. He gave out a cry of agony as he adjusted the Scythe's course, fighting the ship itself as he banked it into a violent intercept course. Blood leaked from his mouth, his clenched teeth shredding his lips apart.
Creaks and groans echoed throughout the ship as it protested its sudden shift in trajectory. The Lady Inquisitor was ready for the massive shift in gravity, and balanced herself as the massive bulk of the Scythe shifted in space. The bridge crew cried out, the punishing g-forces sucking them into their seats.
It was just in time, as the enemy's cruiser fired its guns, realizing its coming doom. Rotating, it tried to escape. It didn't.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Barnes screamed. Sirens blared, and the bridge was doused in red light as the Scythe barreled forward, bloodlust seething from the Captain beside her. The ships connected, and the reinforced armor-plated prow of her ship punched into the enemy cruiser, breaking it apart under its unrelenting force. It buckled, splintering into a thousand fragments of red-painted adamantium.
The Steed of the Saint soared overhead, its lances raking what remained with scouring blasts of holy las-fire. Uriel loomed ahead, the black spires of industry alight with a burnt reddish hue. A heretic, freed from the confines of his ship, splattered against the window, spraying solidified blood against it.
"Well done, Captain," the Lady Inquisitor said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Can you put me in contact with Magos Tyrham?" Composing himself, he nodded, pressing a few buttons on his throne. As he sought out the correct frequency among the thousands of comm-lines, she devised a plan, composed contingency sequences.
In the chaos of open conflict, infinite possibilities existed, each one requiring a different path, different actions to resolve. Magos Tyrham was one of the more powerful Magi among the Mechanicus hierarchy on Uriel. He supervised Forge Sidon-Six, one of the titanic hive-foundries that dotted the surface… he should be well-protected. The possibility of losing Myrtenaster unnerved her.
Though their mutually beneficial relationship was born twenty years ago of stressed necessity (and she detested most members of the Mechanicus), it had borne considerable fruit. And though his mind was caged in metal, it bore the same characteristics of all her servants, Enough to trust him with her last reminder of Remnant. She prayed to the Emperor he was still there.
"Contact established, my Lady," Barnes said through gritted teeth. She let loose a silent breath. Truly, I am blessed. "Terminal four."
"Thank you, Captain," she replied, stalking over to a bank of communications equipment. It sprouted wires and servitors galore, each one well-oiled and hissing as they routed and re-routed their network of vox-lines and comm channels. "Magos Tyrham…" she said, summoning his image from a host of screens. He appeared, six yellow eyes that shone out from a crimson hood, the rest of his face concealed by shadows and an artisanal vox-mask. A legion of augmentic limbs twitched and worked as he stepped into view, each clacking and working as they went about their tasks.
"Ah, Lady Inquisitor," his voice replied, tinny and bitcrushed. "Many years since we last spoke. Opportune to meet you once again." His words were always hurried and rapidly delivered, but now there was an edge to his voice. An urgency.
"Likewise, Magos. I require your assistance once more."
"How fortunate. I find myself in a similar predicament," he replied.
The Lady Inquisitor rested her hand on the pommel of her force sword, looking into the projection of her ally. "How may I assist you?"
A rumbling disrupted the channel, shaking Magos Tyrham's image into a wavy screen of pixels. His eyes blinked and darted, no doubt running a hundred subroutines. "Under assault from the arch-foe. They have seized my forge-district and advance on others. Uriel is in crisis."
"Understood, Magos," she said, nodding. "I'll extract you once I make planetfall."
"Misunderstood. I cannot leave, and the arch-foe is well-entrenched. Skies are contested as well. Extraction not only unwelcome, but impossible. My work is here too. Cannot abandon it."
The Lady Inquisitor sighed, wishing her helm allowed her to massage the bridge of her nose. "Surely, you exaggerate," she said. "The fate of the sector - and possibly the Crusade - rest on me reaching you. There must be another way."
Magos Tyrham's image flickered, his eyes clicking and whirring. "No exaggeration," he replied, his metal voice tinged with regret. "Position is perilous. Your donations have bolstered my defensive capabilities, but we are losing ground. Workshop will not remain inviolate forever."
"Unacceptable!" The Lady Inquisitor cried, startling the comms officers, who wilted under her sudden rebuke. "You must hold, at all costs. I will do what I can to relieve you, but you cannot fall."
"...Understood, my Lady," Tyrham said, mechanized digits clacking against each other. "Uriel's defenses have been reinforced. Several dozen Astra Militarum regiments from surrounding sub-sectors. They are inexperienced, but holding. Twenty three such regiments hold the neighboring Forge. Magos Valarah's domain. If they are relieved, they may be reallocated to freeing my own."
The Lady Inquisitor nodded, hand resting on the hilt of her inferno pistol. "I will see what I can do. Who is in command here?"
"Archmagos-Governor Abremel commands the skitarii. The general defense of Uriel as well. General Campbell leads the Militarum reinforcements. Their progress is slow. The arch-foe…" he trailed off, hood shifting to reveal its gold trimmings. "They came in great numbers."
"Hold firm, Magos. I will see you shortly. Remain in contact, and update me as often as you can. Good luck, and may the Emperor deliver us."
"Omnissiah grant us all his favor," he agreed.
The channel disconnected, and the Lady Inquisitor's fist clenched, resolve straining the servos in her armor.
"Captain Barnes," she called, "bring us within deployment range. Today, we make war!" The resulting cheers reached for the soaring ceiling of the bridge, but the enthusiasm of her servants did nothing to lighten her mounting apprehension.
Amat.
Tyrham.
Yang.
Emperor… please… light my way.
A/N: Huge chapter next time! Also, WOOT, SEASON 3 OF RWBY DROPS TODAY! GET FUCKING HYPE!
Review Replies:
Antonio92: That was my thought as well! Yang is just not suited for the Imperium at all, and it always makes me grin!
LordGhostStriker: Well, it's kinda academic at this point, right?
huCAST 75 madeanaccount: Thanks for the feedback! I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as you normally did. Hopefully this chapter shed some light on the whole issue.
Darth nylon544: 1 - Yeah, I have no idea what the fuck I meant by that. Sorry! And regarding Yang's thoughts on the 'Imperium' twisting Weiss' love of Ruby, Yang doesn't mean it quite literally... she can't know everything Weiss has done or how she arrived at her current love/obsession for Ruby. Plus, it's a sensitive topic for her, and she is human after all. Doesn't have the benefit of an objective opinion.
Darkerpaths: Yeah, even the words they learn are constructed to keep them pliant and obediant.
Redcollector: Thank you!
OnyxIdol: Don't make a bet with the author of the story! XD
Inquisitor Azreal: I guess we'll find out, won't we?
OBSERVER01: Thank you so much! We'll be learning a little more about Amat as the story goes on, I think.
The Walrus of Eden: Only War and all, of course. It was interesting putting a Vindicare in such a setting. I think it rubbed a few people the wrong way. :D
reality deviant: Thank you!
Enuncia: I put a lot of work into them, so I'm glad you liked them. Thanks for recc'ing me on the r/RWBY bookclub! :D
Kiyoushu: It fits so well haha!
Gammaman: If he does, it will be minor and not for a long, long time.
Nemris: I'm glad you think so! I agree... constant violence is only fun for a bit.
snoogenz: It's just the way she is!
Heitomos: Hopefully it didn't come on too suddenly! I wanted to subvert how "the Reveal" gets done in a lot of crossover fics, but that seems to have its own set of issues. Glad you liked it!
blaiseingfire: I guess we'll see!
Jigoku no Yami: The Lady Inquisitor chooses her servants carefully. And sorry, but dust doesn't exist in the Imperium!
Gafgar: Well, at least she doesn't have FILTHY XENOS ears. XD
soupie13941: Aw, you flatter me! It means a lot hearing that, so thank you! :)
Thanks so much everyone! I love hearing your thoughts on the story, and I appreciate every bit of feedback!