Well it's been a bit I'll say, around 4 months of me not writing this. There were finals which did take some time and focus but I've been done with them for a couple weeks and I could of written something before them. In other news it'll only be a few days to the one year mark of this story, by the time the next chapter is done this story will be over a year old! Well, enough of that, we have a story to get to. So without further ado, chapter 10 of Tyrant or Savior, we're in double digits now!

I don't own Warhammer 40k, not the Warhammer or the 40k, though the latter may be useful if it was money

Lighting Embers

As prosperous or powerful as Lugan may have been, respective to the nations of Riln of course, there would always be enemies to fight. Whether external enemies in the form of rival kingdoms, or internal in the form of any number of criminals, bandits, and other such ne'er do wells.

Yet through the history of Lugan one family had stood resolute at the forefront of the Kingdom's army, always ready to cut down any who would wish harm to it. They were the Jakil family, the warrior lords of Lugan. The stalwart shield and deadly sword of the Kingdom. No matter the fortunes of the Kingdom or their own family they remained loyal. Even when the Imperium came and toppled the old regimes of Lugan the Jakil family stood loyal to their oaths and fought for their new lords of the Sheldar family.

Now all of that was very nice, all the tales of loyalty and the adulations of the masses were great. But that didnt excuse the fact that the paperwork that came along with the command of the forces of Lugan was one of the most boring things imaginable. A fact that the current head of the Jakil family, Yulun, had become intimately familiar with every day.

He sat in his office in the palace of Lugan sorting through the various requests that came to him both through the more traditional means of paper reports and through the various tools given to him by the Imperium. Looking at his office was a strange sight, a sandstone room with rugs covering the floor and drapes on the walls with regular wooden furniture adorning the room. A desk in the center, a shelf filled with scrolls and books on the left side, and in the back of the room to the right is a table with a couple chairs with various treats and fruits for Yulun to snack on should he become hungry. Yet all through this there is Imperial technology, including a data pad sitting in the desk and a hologram projector sitting on the table next to the plates with wires snaking through a hole in the floor to a room below with a generator the servants kept working.

Yulun's days were not spent waging war for his kingdom, while that sometimes still happened on Riln and the Imperium just didn't step in, it was too petty a matter for their attention it seemed. Nor were they spent patrolling the territories, few dared to trespass and the three towns under Lugan had their own garrison's. His days weren't even spent apprehending criminals in Lugan itself, it could be taken care of by his subordinates. But even if it seemed beneath him Yulun still longed to participate, if even to escape the endless boredom and paperwork.

A report from Cabra requesting a squad of soldiers from Lugan to help deal with some especially tenacious bandits. He wrote out a letter of approval and handed it to a servant to deliver it to its next destination. A request form the Despon family for Imperial weapons to outfit their household troops. They had been asking for this for awhile but had been getting extra persistent lately for some reason. Nonetheless he couldn't budge on his answer, he couldn't just hand out Imperial weapons to anyone who wanted them, it wasn't even fully his authority. He'd have to get the Imperial Colonel's approval to do this. A report on farm production... how did this end up on his desk? it's not even his family who handles agriculture.

Yulun got up from his desk and walked over to the table picking up a little pastry with nicely cooked dough in the outside and some slices of Riln native fruit within. Not the healthiest food for sure but it did wonders for his mood when the boredom started to become frustrating.

His life was nothing but unmitigated boredom, not once had he gotten the chance to participate in a battle like his family was expected to, he was less a general and more a damn clerk. His Grandfather had fought in the war with the Imperium, he may have been on the wrong side and thus died, but still he got to fight. His father had gotten to put down a rebellion or two against the Imperium. But Yulun, he just approved papers every moment of every day, like one of those "servitor" things the people who seem to be more metal than man, the Mechanicus, likes to tout.

'It's not fair, nothing happens! No battles, not interesting discoveries, nothing!' After having that thought Yulun then pushed his feelings back down. 'No need to get worked up over something I can't change.' Then was preparing himself to get back to work on the pile of papers still on his desk when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in." The person who opened the door was clearly one of Yulun's subordinates, a traditional Lugan guard, dressed in the studded leather armor they always wore, their helmet with the flap used to cover the neck on. On his body was a tabard with the heraldry of Lugan on it. The two rivers coming from the bottom two corners combing into one then flowing up to the top, splitting the tabard into three sections. In each of these sections is, respectively, a sword, a coin, and a fruit native to Riln. Representing Lugan's might, wealth, and prosperity. He had the traditional weapon of Lugan's guards in his right hand, a spear with an iron head, and a scroll in his left hand.

"This is for you my lord, a message of great importance I am told." Yulun walked over to the soldier and took the scroll from his outstretched hand. He then briefly scanned over it's contents. His eyes widened in surprise. An Imperial ship, crashed in the desert just half a days ride outside of Lugan. This was important, that ship could hold anything from the mundane to the terrifying, they needed to secure the wreckage and anything that may be inside of it. Such a mission was quite important and someone of import should lead it. Of course that person of import was going to be Yulun. How could he not? Here he had been bemoaning his boredom and here comes an excuse for him to take to the field on a silver platter. He didn't know if he had the Emperor or Riln's old gods to thank for such a splendid opportunity so he settled for thanking both of them in his thoughts.

"Soldier, head to the barracks and gather a force of a hundred men, have them gathered outside the city gates and await my arrival, I shall be bringing reinforcements from the Imperial garrison if I can."

"Yes my lord." The soldier then exited the room and hurried off to do as he was requested. Yulun turned and walked back to his desk and grabbed the data pad sitting on it. He quickly wrote out and sent a message to the Colonel requesting 20 of her troops to help investigate the crashed ship. A couple minutes of waiting later he received a message approving his request and saying they were en route to the gathering location.

The troops gathered for the expedition waited in the heat outside the city gates, getting what shade they could from the walls of the city. They had their Helto's, those ever reliant mounts if the people of Riln with them by their sides. Some fed and cared for the Helto's, others cleaned and maintained their weapons and armor, others just sat and stood around chatting with their fellows.

100 guards was a rather unusual amount to be gathered for anything, so naturally rumors abounded about their mission. Most weren't sure of the validity of the story of the Imperial ship having crashed in the desert. Some thought they were clearing a large bandit camp, they had become rather troublesome in recent days, especially with the recent attack on the Despon caravan still in mind. Some especially spirited individuals thought maybe they were going to stir up trouble with a neighboring kingdom, create an excuse to expand the territories of Lugan. Few however took that thought seriously, war wasn't prohibited between the kingdoms, but it was costly in materials, money, and lives.

However as the troops gathered outside the city many eyes were watching them. Many of those eyes were completely benign, curious civilians and the like wondering what necessitated the gathering of so many troops in one place. Some however were much less friendly. They watched, they listened, and they too wondered what these troops would be needed for. One of them, a simple laboring man split off from the group. He wandered through the main streets like any other person, he looked at the goods of the merchants and complained about their prices. He talked with his fellows and acquaintances he met in the streets about news and all the other frivolities of daily life. However at some point he left the main hustle and bustle of the main streets and entered the back streets, after winding through them for a minute or two he came upon a door built over a hole in the ground, an entrance to the catacombs. He knocks on the door then said.

"I am one who would shatter the chains of false gods." After a couple seconds the sound of a lock coming undone was followed by the opening of the door. A rough looking man in clothing fitting of a brigand stood there, one hand resting on the sheath of a sword.

"What brings you to the catacombs, friend?"

"I bring an important message for the Great One."

The man kneeling before me said he had come bearing important news, so I listened. As the light from the bonfire through shadows on the wall I listened as he informed me of the gathering of troops above. 100 soldiers from what he could tell, a rare sight to see when Lugan was at peace. What could this mean? What did the leaders of Lugan need to do that required so many troops?

Then the man told me something even more interesting, the lord of the Jakil family and a group of Imperial Guard were coming along with the group of 100. That made everything even more suspect.

"Rise, friend. You have done me a great service this day by bringing this information to my attention." Such words still felt strange on my inhuman mouth, I was not used to speaking with such formality.

"I am unworthy of such wonderful praise Great One." The man said what they all say, putting themselves down as they encouraged my own ego. It frustrated me to no end that they continued use to do this.

"Do not say that my friend, the contributions of every person are necessary for our dreams to become reality, mine the same amount as yours." The man nodded.

"Of course Great One, your knowledge and humility truly transcend us all." And he proceeded to learn nothing at all from what I had said. Religious fanatics just can't be reasoned with it seemed. It's even more sad that I'm the reason they ended up this way. I do this for the good of these people, but that doesn't make the weight of regret any lighter on my mind.

"Now, return to your business my friend, be assured that I will look into this matter." And I meant that, in fact I intended to look into this matter personally. I hadn't been out of the catacombs in awhile, besides with so much at stake here, a lord of Lugan along with Imperial Guard troops, I needed to know what they were doing.

The man got up and, after bowing, left the main room of the catacombs to return home. After he left Dejka, my captain of the guard, if you can call a bunch of brigands a guard that is, looked to me from where he was sitting.

"Getting involved yourself I take it?"

"How did you know?" I responded, somewhat curious.

"You got a look on your... face, despite clearly not being human you are surprisingly good at showing our emotions." I was a tad surprised at this, I did not take Dejka to be so perceptive. It was also nice to speak with someone who was a bit less formal.

"Well let's just say I understand you quite well. I intend to take the tunnel we dug out that leads to outside the city, then I'll track them and see where they are going. I trust you guys can "hold down the fort" as the saying goes." Dejka just looked a bit confused at that.

"Never heard that saying before..." I mentally slapped myself, of course they wouldn't know that saying.

"Well, in any case, I'll be off."

"See you when you get back Great One, don't go dying on us." And with that I left the main room and started finding my way through the catacombs.

It was a quick affair to find my way through the catacomb tunnels to the way out of the city. The dug out exit was covered by the foliage of some shrubbery of the riverside and once guaranteeing my safety I exited and stalked my way towards where the troops had gathered.

When I reached a good spot to observe I sat and waited. Thankfully it wasn't that long because only a few minutes after I had started watching the Jakil lord came riding out of the city gates with his guard all riding on Helto's, and the Imperial guard troops riding behind them in 3 motorized vehicles, it was an odd sight to say the least. After a bit of prepping and banter between the groups the 100 guards mounted up and the whole group started moving.

I followed them inside the foliage for a while, I was able to keep up with them rather easily, the problem was remaining unseen. That was easy enough in the foliage but when they turned and started riding away from me it became harder. I left the foliage and ran to keep up with them, but I always remained behind the dunes, careful to not reveal myself to them. Groups of 2 or 3 or even 5 to 10 were one thing, this was a small army, and one armed with at least a few Imperial weapons. For all the flashlight jokes the Lasgun was not a weapon you should underestimate in any situation.

This remained the way of things for a while, the group cresting dunes with me trailing a moderate distance behind while the sun crawled through the sky. Until eventually as I crested another dune I saw the men all slowing down and stopping. And I saw it, the goal of this entire mission, of assembling this small army.

The ship I had been brought to this planet on, lying half buried in the sand.

Reviews:

Zerkil: If you have some ideas, I suggest you write them and try to bring them so life. It's a fair amount of work I'll admit, but if you have time it can be rewarding. For how, go to the Document manager screen and click the plus sign in the top right of the screen. There is also the "how to publish story" screen. All of this is contained in the tab that looks like the end of a pen on the bottom of the screen. On the app at least.

Guest: from what I know, the Broodmind, a miniature version of the Hivemind in Genestealer Cults gives some resistance to chaotic corruption. As well as generally Genestealer cults think of their Patriarch as a divine emissary. I tried to keep things relatively in line with cannon, but I may have messed up somewhere.

Madbalossa: yeah I complete forgot about the ship, thanks for reminding me though. It gave me some ideas, helped get this chapter written too!