The rewrite of a man
3 hours later
After the battle, I went to my tent to get some fuckin sleep. The planet is secured but with a high cost: 50,000 men dead, 750,000 injured, 800 Leman Russ tanks, 2000 land raiders, 20 space marines and at least 50 billion civilian casualties. But were soon replaced by certain emergency breeding programs issued by the inquisition. Bloody hell the rate these people breed at.
I take off my gear and put it in their respective places. My dual 44. revolvers (approved by the Adeptus Mechanicus) in their holsters, My bastard sword to the weapons rack and my sniper rifle in its metal box. The storm bolter I picked up was to be given to the tech-priests earlier to be re-blessed. They asked how I managed to carry, let alone fire it without the support of power armour. I told them that a veteran can also wield one. They responded that it was a terminator variant. I had to bribe them with toasters to shut them up. That was close.
"Captain Parker, may I have a word?" a feminine voice came from the entrance of my tent.
"Come in Commissar Violeta." a woman of short height came in. she has bronze-like skin, burning yellow eyes, black raven hair and full red lips. Violeta Shingta was from the now Chaos-controlled Cardinal Worlds, a shrine world called Shamvri III.
Her outfit was clean of any blood and her boots still shine even in mud, a very clean person. She is probably Nurgle's nightmare. She had the normal commissar outfit and a cutlass sword at her left hip and a Plasma gun on the right. If I remember carefully she once killed a Chaos Space Marine with both at the cost of one of her eyes, a decent trade all things considered.
"We are to be garrison on the planet Athena in 2 weeks," she told me as she stood there like a proper officer. "We may need to acquire much-needed supplies and faith due to our recent battle." She's right, any battle with Chaotic forces is a lose
"Thank you, Violeta, " I said in a very tired tone. I need some coffee, so badly. "you can leave now."
As soon as she left I went to my tactical Cogitator to view the tactical information and my personal logs of the planet.
And to check on my Voxmails, hey got one from my kids.
The planet Athena was discovered between 30-40 years ago by an explorator fleet, back when I was still only a Vet. The natives of this planet were only human-like women with their lower half resembling a snake's body and tail. These women were called Medusas (A/N who have no affiliation with the total war series whatsoever but are influenced by it and I needed to work an original planet and race for the first time) and were generally friendly to the explorator fleet but were wary of the Magos in charge. They were a tribal world so seeing a bring who was more machine than flesh was quite terrifying to them. I know I would.
The population of Atheina was at least 250 million in the present time, with an extra 4 billion within the solar system. How they are born varies in reports but I had been to the planet before so I know how they are born. Each Medusas lay up to 5 eggs if they choose to sire one that takes up to 9-12 months to hatch. When said egg hatches the child is at the age of an Imperial toddler. The child is then thought by the mother the basic essentials of how to survive like hunting, fighting, cooking and for an odd reason, singing. I akin to them to sirens, but snakes.
The planet itself is just your ordinary jungle world, except it had a very strange magnetic field that can repel exterminates and orbital weapons alike but allows a small craft like the Valkyrie to enter the atmosphere unharmed in any way. Even more strange it helps the Magos ship to completely map the entire planet in under 30 minutes, including ore-rich underground caverns.
Small tribes dotted the planet making war and trading with each other. The first one to be contacted was the Indeila tribe as they were the biggest out of all of them. Their traditions are mostly about how to fight and employ shock tactics with their axes and harassing tactics with their bows. When introduced to Lasguns and Bolters, they kinda went on a killing spree against another tribe who they had a huge rivalry with and only stop when the Magos with his voice amplified by his boombox enhancements.
They proceeded to lay down their arms as they prayed to the Magos, which in turn preached to them to the Machine God. When the Magos saw what combat potential these women had. It was enough for him to issue sanctions for them with his influence.
He could see these women as excellent shock troops and with a few cybernetics here and there they could rival most of the Cadian shock troopers, hell they can even surpass some of them. Even with just their fist, the woman can just use their tails to whip and coil any foe into submission. (did I forget to mention that these women were also into BDSM like the Space nuns?)
Even though their mouths can be deadly weapons, they can spit concentrated/corrosive venom that shoots for up to 100 meters at MINIMAL range. Give them a sniper rifle and you got yourself some decent cover support. With their thick yet smooth scale-like skin they could take at least 5 bolter rounds into their chests and still move another mile.
But for the time being the Magos just tried to make them into elite shook troopers.
They would be good shock troops if only 5 years later that damm inquisitor, who-the-fuck-cares didn't shoot one of the tribal leaders for just fucking looking at him funny. I mean he just goes willy-nilly and shoots one during a tribal council of all things AND IT WAS ABOUT INSTALLING FUCKING A PLUMBING SYSTEM!
Sorry about that, where was I? Oh yeah, this little incident ended up causing a civil war on the planet with the before-mentioned Magos shockingly joining the Xenos side, not wanting the potential elite troops to be lost in the name of the Omnissiah but also because the inquisitor was just a huge prick. His Skitarii and the Medusas made short work of the inquisitor's personal guard and kicked him out before any major damage was done.
The planet's population was just 600 million before the war started, now it was 50 million after 20 months of fighting. The inquisitor had no substantial forces under his command and with the planet's magnetic field that prevented exterminates, he ordered strafing bombs on the planet instead to make up for his lack of manpower. However, with the lack of infrastructure and major supply lines, the inquisitor targeted the tribes themselves. Even tribes that didn't want anything to do with the war. You can tell how much this pissed off an entire planet.
The Magos, in turn, developed anti-air emplacements to counter this and had his Tech-priests and servitors develop underground shelters for The Medusas to sleep, eat and most importantly survive in. Whatever landing force the inquisitor had was repelled time and time again. Both sides knew that this would be a war of attrition and that it would last months until the Adepta Sororitas of a nearby system heard of this war from a fleeing scout ship before taking in the survivors who were all underage. Communications were scrambled by the Magos and only send out one message: ++To all that hears this, fuck the inquisition.++.
The Sisters of Battle hailed an imperial ship to take them to Athena at full speed. They picked up many guardsmen on the way, including me from a recent jungle battle. When we arrived 2 weeks later the inquisitor hailed us and ask for assistance against these Xeno-loving heretics. The Sisters of Battle asked what has happened. He replied that Magos Orian has sided with the natives on the planet and has betrayed the imperium at a large scale by consorting with Xenos. It was only then that we got a galaxy-wide message that the inquisition was to be disbanded. In a confused rage, the ex-inquisitor fired upon us as he thought we were working with the Magos.
The two ships had a dual of sorts, they could not penetrate each other's void shield as the planet's peculiar anomalies absorbed 80% of the energy the ship produce as soon as we entered combat. The only real problems were random cannibal tribes on the ship. For 3 whole days, we continued to shoot each other as many of my fellow men just got really bored. So bored that some of them tried to seduce the Sisters of Battle, try is the keyword here as they were all rejected though the sisters were happy with the genuine compliments they got.
As the third day was about to end a red beam came from the planet's surface and shot straight through the inquisitor ship, cutting it in half. We received a hail from the Magos.
++Thank you for the assistance Sisters but we were doing fine for some time now.++
Canoness Preceptor Marina Rivera responded: "Can you please tell of why this has happened?"
++We will speak of this when we come face to face. I would like to have your sister's medical services. if you would be so kind as to provide.++
"I see. Very well, I am coming down to the planet's surface will you meet me there?"
++Yes. Sending coordinates to a nearby landing site.++
Later in the hangar...
The Canoness ordered that only she and her Sisters of Battle were to be the only ones to go to the planet. There were exceptions though as she also asks for medical officers to come with her. But with the dangers of the jungle-like areas on the planet and the lack of infrastructure, she needed someone who can help traverse the jungle with efficiency. So I was chosen for the task, and I was the only one who knew anything about jungle travel on the ship. It was also a bonus that I was a combat medic at the time.
The landing crafts made their way towards the planet and landed somewhere near the Indeila tribe. The Magos greeted us and prompted us to follow him to the command bunker. As we walk through the jungle we pass by several Medusas holding bolters and wearing frag grenade belts on their hips. The lack of body scars was either they were fresh recruits or they shed them off.
The command bunker was inside a cave system that spread across the planet. The tunnel inside was dimly lit and the walls and floors were made of concrete. Deep down the bunker were infantry barracks, small ore refineries, small arms workshops, childcare areas, a Machine God temple and the list goes on and on.
As we went deeper into the bunker little medusa children stalked us. Their eyes were full of wonder at what strange angels the Machine God had sent them. We went on with nothing else of note.
When we arrived at the command centre it had computers on ammo crates and weapons racks filled to the brim with bolters and frag grenades. There were Lascannons with sling attachments, these snake girls were strong enough to lift and fire these things like Space Marine that's for sure.
The Magos sat on a cobblestone chair, staring at us with his metal eyes. He told the Canoness of what had just happened above the planet was true, the inquisition is to be disbanded. The Emperor demanded this through a text-to-speech device. So that old fuck managed to speak once again huh?
He then explained about the laser cannon. It was powered by a nuclear generator thanks to the abundant amount of uranium. It was capable of blowing up Battleships, but its rate of fire left much to be desired.
The Canoness had a choice: leave the Magos and the planet alone or bring him in for heresy. She chose the former over the latter considering the disbanding of the Inquisition and that she was on a planet that is very loyal to the Magos.
The Magos then asked if she can come to speak on a private matter somewhere they won't be eavesdropped on. She agreed and the Magos presses a button on his chair, a blue screen surrounded them and the medics were told to get to the infirmary. I was sent with them and patched this Medusas as best I could.
It seems that their biology is similar to that of humans, in fact, their DNA was quite similar. These ladies weren't Xenos, they were Abhumans.
Later outside...
I wandered around the Indeila tribe, now named Fang district. The wooden huts were slowly converted into brick houses and the dirt roads were turned into basic gravel roads. I passed by some fresh forges producing tools and weapons for the Medusas.
I soon reached a cookhouse. It mostly sold meats but it also sells tea. Thank god for tea.
The Medusas were cooking a stew out of their own tails, it tastes nice but could use more salt. The introduction of Grox meat was met with positive opinions from the natives and a herding business was founded somewhere in the south. They even had promising aquaculture in the works.
I had some thrones on hand so I bought a cup of tea and a plate of Medusa tail with fried rice, it was delicious.
The SoB next to me kept a close eye on me, I wonder what was going on in her mind.
In the mind of the SoB…
'Disgusting! Why would he eat, that and not proper imperial food? Is it really that good?' my stomach growls, shit.
Back to Sergeant Parker…
'Huh, she must be hungry too. Might as well share.' "Hey, do you want some? I mean it's pretty good." she looks at me, her stomach growling louder. She nods her head.
I passed her the plate and give her a spoon. She takes a bite and chews. Her face slowly turns into a smile.
"It's good right?" I ask her, she just nods her head like a toddler. 'Cute.' She reminds me of my kids when they were younger.
The rest of that day pass without event and as we walked back to the landing ships I see someone who I haven't seen for years, my brother.
"Hayden, you're still alive it seems!" I say surprised to see my tech-priest Artisan brother in front of me. I haven't seen him since we split ways around the time the first Tyranid war rolled around.
"Nice to see you too John." he rolls his optic eyes speaking in his organic voice, something that Tech-priests rarely have. He wore the Adeptus Mechanicus robe but was more utilitarian and slim. He wore cargo pants over his cyber legs and power boots. His fists were cleverly designed to look like cybernetics but were really compact power fists.
We had a nice conversation and told me of his STC findings and battles he had fought in. you see my brother is not like other Tech-priests, he is more innovative something that would count as tech-heresy. In secret, he makes gadgets, weapons and all sorts of things. He made me a bastard sword made out of an old but powerful metal called black steel which made it virtually impossible to break and never worn at all to replace a more powerful weapon I once had.
He and I then ended up on the topic of what to do in this day and age. We have no purpose other than fighting for causes with the most dubious of reasons. I think of all the times that I had to fight in meaningless wars, sure the battles against Chaos were necessary but I don't think shooting people asking for better working conditions is a great idea.
He even told me that he was the one who convinced the Magos to take the side of the Medusas by telling him of their battle potential and their faith in the Omnissiah. It was mostly the faith part.
"Here brother, something to keep us in contact." he hands me a modified Nokia phone with a half a foot-long antenna on the back. Damm thing looks like it's been hit with Titan-rade weaponry and deflected that shit.
We did a bro hug and went our separate ways.
End of log #21
I closed the log and opened my Voxmails.
To [Johnathan William Parker]
From [Jessica Aphrodite Parker]
Hey dad! Me and Ayla just finally became honorary battle-sisters. We even get bolters and FLAMERS! So yeah we are Sisters of battle now. Shame that we have to commit to celibacy, seems really dumb. We were trying to be Hospitallers as you suggested but we may have or may have not been chosen due to our really good fighting skills.
Anyway, we are going to be garrison on a planet called Athenia, sounds like something from your bedtime stories. We both miss you so much and I hope you will respond soon!
With love, Jess.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." I put my hands in my face and just sigh. I am going to kill whoever assigned them to Sisters of Battle and not Hospitallers. Fuck me was the bribe I gave not worth it!?
"I'M SORRY OLD FRIEND, BUT I NEED YOUR HELP AGAIN." He mutters quietly while Magnus is having a hissy fit over furies.
"My Emperor who are you talking to?!" Captain-General Kitten shouted as Magnus was setting all the gold on fire.
Meanwhile in the barracks...
Commissar Violeta organized paperwork for any Commissar-related issues. Mostly executions of cowards, proper cleaning of weapons and of course, going through all of the contraband the soldiers keep getting somehow as well as other paperwork. One interesting discrepancy that keeps popping up in the paperwork was around Captain Johnathan Parker. There was nothing that could be traced back to him, even the battle reports that he gives to her personally are not through the proper channels.
Digging deeper she found a small but notable paper trail to a Schola Progenium that consisted of, holy relics? Where in the Emperor's name did he find that? The better question still is why?
Somewhere on Ophelia VII...
Sounds of argument were heard throughout the Convent Sanctorum. The reason for this lively debate with warning bolter fire was an issue between them and the Convent Prioris over the assignment of 2 Sisters of Battle. Usually, such a small issue as the reassignment of very insignificant Sisters of Battle would cause no problems, unless both sides were accused of bribery.
The Convents found themselves catching each other in acts of accepting bribery of holy relics. Some could be traced back to the Emperor while others were through the most complicated paper trails that began with the Imperial Guard and ended with the Imperial Navy with a mix of Adeptus Mechanicus and Adepta Administratum spread throughout.
This will only last for 15 days before they agreed to accept the bribe from the Emperor and then descend into another fight over the bribery.
End of Chapter 2
Revised on 22/11/2022
