Well somewhat late merry Christmas and happy New year, I'm finally getting a chapter out and I hope you enjoy it. As always comments and criticism are appreciated

I don't own 40k, and not even the power of the holidays can change that

City life

It was night in Lugan, the three moons hug in the sky and stars twinkled. Such nights were common in Lugan due to the lack of rain that the city got, allowing the people to admire the sky. While inside the city most streets were quiet, the people inside their homes. Whether those be the small huts left for the poor and destitute or large multi floored residences belonging to wealthy merchants and nobles. Even in a city as safe as Lugan usually was people tended to not stay up too late on these streets, bandits and thugs were known to occasionally make a move and rob someone, leaving them beaten and bruised as they made their escape before the guards arrived. However there were streets that stayed busy, those with taverns and brothels being a couple of examples.

It was on one of these such streets that a man was walking, or doing a rather poor imitation of it. He swayed back and forth and stumbled every few steps. He was clearly intoxicated from a night of rowdy fun, and the man had good enough sense to call it quits when he had started seeing double.

"I'm gonna *hic* regret this tomorrow aren't *hic* I." He slurred out as he stumbled his way off the street he had been on and started off towards his home. However it didn't take long until he realized he was lost in the winding streets, his intoxicated state rendering his knowledge of the city streets hard to recall.

However as he turned around various dark corners trying to find his way back to familiar streets something was watching him. The only hints of its presence being a small glint off hard chitin or a gleam of the eye. It snuck closer to the man as he stood as a cross section looking down the four paths he could take trying to remember which way led to home. Closer the creature drew slinking from the shadows showing purple skin, 4 arms, and a maw of deadly teeth.

The man felt eyes on his back and turned around hoping for someone to help him find his way and dreading the sight of a thug, but what he saw was so much worse. He opened his mouth to scream, to yell for help, and to try to warn others of the beast within their city, but then he looked into the beasts eyes, and his panic receded. Staring into them he felt as if he was being swallowed by the waters of one of their sacred rivers, like his mind was being floated in their waters being gentle caressed by the water and he couldn't, no he wouldn't fight back against it. The beast moved closer but the man didn't care still to entrapped by the beast's eyes. Then the beast opened its mouth a knife like tongue darted out and pierced the man on the shoulder, the man then lost consciousness but before he could hit the ground the beast caught him in its arms and Bentley laid him down on the ground. But before he completely lost consciousness he heard a whisper, but it was directly in his mind.

"Please, forgive me for this."

Apologies, my life seemed to be full of them nowadays, although few were said out loud I still made a lot of them to myself. A way of trying to atone for the things I was doing, things I knew I wouldn't be able to atone for in a thousand years. But nonetheless it allowed me some small amount of comfort, that although my body is alien, my mind is still mostly human.

The man I had just infected was laying there on the ground unconscious as the Genestealers kiss worked it's way through his body and mind. I could feel it in my mind as well as he slowly connected to the Broodmind, his memories became open to me and his loyalty would be absolute. But to anyone that found him who didn't look at him at the cellular level he would just look like a drunk who passed out trying to get home, not suspicious in the least.

I quickly returned to the shadows of the alleyways and started to make my way to the nearest catacombs entrance, intending on returning to my "headquarters" if you could call it that. It's mostly just a small camp around a fire they keep going constantly, not many of the current infected reside down there mostly just the bandits I infected when I took the catacombs. Out of all of them I took the one who had seemingly been their leader before I came and made him the Captain of the guard, meant to defend our headquarters and meeting place. Not many men for him to captain and a pretty terrible place to guard but like it always was when I give something to one of the infected they are always grateful and the man, Dejka I think his name was, a rather large man with long black hair, brown eyes, and a scar running up his right cheek, took to his new position with gusto. Although my "forces" amount to a handful of thugs holed up in the catacombs they knew spend time trying to train, even though they don't know how to do military training. When they aren't trying their best attempt at training or guarding they do what they already did, robbing and thieving, which keeps the hideout fed and gets us a small income.

I soon approached one of the catacombs entrances and crept down it quietly then made my way through the winding tunnels with little difficulty as I could remember the paths effortlessly. After a couple minutes of twists and turns I finally walked into the large chamber that hosted the camp. A large fire in the middle providing warmth and light to the chamber, with bed-mats interspersed with food and equipment scattered around it.

The men were lounging about telling stories, eating and drinking, or trying to practice their skills, little as they may be. When they finally noticed me approaching they all rose to greet me, with Dejka at the front knelling.

"Great one, happy to see ya, did the hunt go good tonight." I must say, I was happy to have someone who wasn't too formal to me, it was weird being treated like an object of devotion. Although it did make me feel a bit uncomfortable when he called my actions "hunts". I had been doing these supposed "hunts" for around a month now since I took the catacombs, getting couple new recruits each night.

"It went quite well captain, three more have been enlightened and brought into the fold." Although I always kept trying to stay formal when I communicated with telepathy. It was quite nice and I could make myself sound wise and dignified, instead of the young adult who had no proper idea what they were doing.

"Oh, by the way Great one, that girl came by again and dropped off this for you." Dejka fished a folded up piece of parchment from a pocket on his coat and handed it to me. I already knew who it was from, Saradiel. I had informed her and her brothers of this place, although I never asked for a report. When I opened it up you'd probably expect me to struggle to read a whole new language, but well, mind reading and all that. So I could understand it just fine, it was actually a report on what her family was currently intent on doing. Business ventures, caravan routes, I was surprised to even find a few actions intent on harming other prominent families in Lugan. Most of the stuff contained was useless for now though, I needed more organization if I wanted to do anything. From what I heard from Saradiel even putting together that group to pretend to be bandits and ambush the Despon family convoy and get me into the city was quite difficult. I handed the letter back to Dejka.

"Keep these in a safe location." After that I sat down by the fire and began to think on what I should do next. So many things to do yet the most prevalent problem I faced right now was organization, I could easily find the infected, but they couldn't find each other as easily, we needed to come together and know who is with us, where they are, and what they can do. An idea soon came to me, a feast of sorts could work, to gather the infected and then we can work together much more efficiently. Coincidentally enough there was also a holy day coming up that I had learned through the memories of some of the newly infected. No one would notice a few people being missing, and the cult could have a more formal beginning.