AN: This part isn't betaed yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners.I make no money from this story. It is not for sale or rent.

A Tale of blood and steel

=ATBS=

Chapter 2: Dawn of war

Part 4

Detention Center

Arbiter's HQ

Jenova Town

Kronus

"No pressure then." I chuckled mirthlessly. "Stop the Adeptus Astartes and the Imperial Guard from killing each other, purge a world from multiple xeno armies, not to forget the apparent Chaos incursion too." I was so much over my head I it wasn't even funny.

"All in a days work, Inquisitor." Anteas spoke solemnly.

"Santos, incendiary grenade. I won't have Requista's body profaned even further." I ordered my bodyguard after leaving the cell.

"Sir." The Stormtrooper spoke quietly and followed my order once Anteas walked out. The soldier threw the grenade in and sealed the door, turning the cell into a crematorium.

"We have a live one, here." One of the Space Marines announced aloud in an uneasy voice.

I frowned. Whatever could gave one of his kind a pause couldn't be a good thing for anyone. I gripped the handle of my sword and walked towards the Astartes. The man was standing next to a cell in the far end of the corridor. His bolter was pointing into it's open door, though he didn't open fire. Whent and another marine interrupted their search and moved in to cover their brother.

I could hear the Stormtroopers taking positions behind me and Anteas' heavy footsteps following me.

What new horror awaited us, I wondered.

I walked past a marine who had taken position to the left of the door and carefully glanced inside. I could see two figures in the twilight. One was a woman – here dead white eyes were staring sightlessly at the door. Her face was a frozen grimace, stretched by gray, taut skin. Another, much smaller figure was clutching the dead woman like a lifeline. A pair of empty green eyes were staring through us looking at only the Emperor knows what. The kid was skin and bones wrapped in a dirty dress that might have been red once upon a time. She was apparently left to starve to death with the corpse of her young mother or older sister.

Still, as fucked up as that was, it didn't explain why the Astartes was feeling uneasy. Undoubtedly he had seen things that were much more fucked up, like what was done to Requista and his people.

Anteas stopped behind me and looked over my head, then he hissed.

"Can someone enlighten me? Is she possessed or something?" I asked warily. My hand clutched the hilt of my chainsword and I prepared for action.

"Can't you feel it?!" The Librarian sounded incredulous.

The hell? Now that I think about it… Yeah, there was no trace of the warp that I could sense. Like it was never there. It was actually soothing. I said so aloud too.

"She's a Pariah." Anteas hissed again.

That gave me pause. As a Psyker, her very presence should be screaming kill me now, getting worse the closer the kid was. Instead, there was nothing.

"Are you sure?" I frowned. "I feel nothing that suggest she's a Pariah or a blank, though I haven't been close to one before."

"Very sure." Anteas growled and took a step back. I'm sure that I heard a sigh of relief coming from him.

"That's weird." I shrugged. "But potentially useful with Chaos and Eldar around."

"You want to use her?" The Librarian asked.

"Well, I'm certainly not leaving her here since she's not possessed or otherwise corrupted. Though a medical scan for nasty surprises will be in order I think. You're sure she's not a deamonhost or something?"

"Very. I've been close to blanks and a Pariah before. The feeling's unmistakable. How in the Emperor's name can you stand being so close to her?" Anteas exclaimed.

"No idea. I'm weird like that." I shrugged. "Hi there." I smiled and waved at the kid, who didn't react like at all. Damn it, I wasn't a therapist or something. The little training I got for similar situations was going to be counter-productive in this case I thought.

"Santos. A ration bar and canteen. Call Pickos to have a female trooper waiting us at the entrance, our new friend might react better to a woman."

Trying to get the girl out of her funk with offer of food and water didn't work. She simply wasn't here and didn't really react when I carefully pulled the corpse of her relative from her hands and picked her up.

Totally catatonic or whatever the scientific term was.

I growled. Just another life destroyed by the damn traitors. As if I needed another reason to burn them all.

=ATBS=

Soon enough we were back at the entrance, after pausing for a few moments to burn the bodies of Requista's team too. We faced no resistance – the remaining traitorous Arbiters were either busy running or got ran down by the guardsmen and Astartes squad working with them.

"What's the plan, Lord Inquisitor?" Anteas asked after I handed the girl to a short, grizzled corporal, who rushed her out towards the waiting Chimeras. "You thought what you're going to do, I hope." Anteas appeared next to me.

"Go back to the capital and put and end to this damn mess. We have enough problems without trying to kill each other too." I dearly hopped that Captain Thule was going to recognize my new authority and rein in his Astartes. We had whole armies of xeno to deal with – fighting among ourselves was going to doom us and every human on Kronus.

"Good, good." The Librarian muttered.

"Do you think Thule will challenge your Chapter Master's orders on my say so?" I asked.

Anteas was silent for a long moment. "I believe so. However, there are some of my brothers that would be mightily displeased by such a turn of events."

"How displeased?"

"That remains to be seen. I..." Anteas trailed off. The Astartes, who was standing just beyond the effective boundary of the girl's disruption effect stiffened. His head snapped up towards the plateau above the town.

"By the Emperor…" The Librarian whispered.

Turned around and stared. The sky was tearing apart as huge wisps of purple energy were rising from somewhere behind the horizon. Lances of blinding light descended from the heavens – likely the Space Marine's strike cruiser unleashing its weapons on the far side of the peninsula.

I had the sinking feeling that it was going to be too little too late.

The ground shook under our feet. A warm, wet wind started blowing in our faces. It carried a fain smell of decay.

I felt a fain pressure in my head but it was a distant thing, that was failed to find a purchase. I shuddered and took a step towards the Chimera with the kid we retrieved. The pressure suddenly vanished and I let out a sigh of relief. Whatever it was, it wasn't good for my health, I knew that much.

"We need to leave. Now." Anteas rasped. He stumbled towards the waiting Chimeras and straightened up once he got closer. "I've never been a witness to a Warp Storm being born." The Librarian groaned.

Above us, the tendrils of Warp energy continued to race towards space.

"Leftenant! We need to get the fuck out of here yesterday! Make your way to the Chimeras on the double and don't stop for anything! Move it!" I shouted in my vox.

"Affirmative! What's the situation? We're feeling something weird."

"A warp storm and something that looks like Chaos incursion."

"Shit. We're pulling out, now." The LT informed me.

"Sergeant, defensive positions, be ready for anything." I ordered the NCO left to oversee our ride back home.

"Yes, sir." The aging man said and started shouting orders.

"What are the odd that we'll be able to pull out without incident?" I asked Anteas.

The Librarian didn't answer and instead just starred at the boiling mass of warp energy that was starting to gather in high orbit.

=ATBS=

Part 5

Arbiter's HQ

Jenova Town

Kronus

It took five nerve wracking minutes for the rest of the platoon and Whent's marines to reach us. The news from orbit weren't good – the growing Warpstorm was threatening to cut us off from reinforcements if it didn't "stabilize" soon. Even worse, the captain of the Strike Cruiser told Anteas that the orbital strike appeared to be unsuccessful. Before warp derived disturbances blanketed their sensors with static and other, less pleasant things, the Astarte's in orbit saw a Chaos Gate forming and a lot of traitor forces pouring through.

We had elements of a traitor legion on site, which meant that unless we all cleaned up our act, we were dead… if we were lucky.

My job just got that much more important and I still had no real idea how to do it besides rely on my new-found authority and pray to the Emperor that it would be enough… I spent the last few minutes trying to plan a course of action that wasn't going to needlessly get people killed and reached the predictable conclusion that I simply lacked the experience to do so. I was supposed to be training how to be a proper little Inquisitorial agent, not the real thing, damn it!

Predictably, we didn't get out without accident – it was that kind of day. Pickos just emerged from the main entrance, followed by her soldiers, more than a few of whom were carrying wounded, when I could feel static electricity building in the air. A loud whining followed by a snap-crack and a flash of light erupted from the edge of the null field surrounding the Chimeras. Chunks of steaming meat and glowing armor exploded outwards and started raining all over the plaza.

A dozen or so rapid flashes followed, deploying huge men randomly just beyond the null field. Most of them wore furs and leathers, though that didn't make their wicked chain swords and axes any less lethal. The small warband was led by a pair of even larger traitor marines, who were armored from head to toe and carrying very large guns.

I stared at the madmen who risked teleporting while a warp storm was being born. For a moment, they were surrounded by a corona of dissipating warp energy, which almost immediately discharged into the surrounding area. My training kicked in just as they gave bloodcurdling war-cries and charged us with no care for their own well-being.

Our Astartes were already reacting – aiming at the madmen. However, they concentrated on the major threat – the traitor marines, which gave a chance to the berserkers to close in.

I drew my weapons and opened fire at the closest madmen. The Chimera next to me was lucky – it's gunner was pointing a heavy bolter in the general direction of the enemy and immediately opened up, blowing a pair of heretics into bloody gore. Anteas, who was under the null field, wasted no time and charged a nearby maniac, who was wielding a pair of chain-axes, while the rest of the marines were busy riddling their traitorous brethren with bolter shells.

We would have emerged from this ill timed attack mostly unscratched, if it wasn't for one nasty fact – four of the madmen appeared almost on top of Pickos and her people. The guardsmen wasted no time in opening fire, however they managed to down only two berserkers, before the rest were within melee range and started swinging. I saw that from the corner of my eye and then I was too busy to pay any more attention to anything but giant barreling towards me.

I shot him twice in the chest, which only ignited the furs he was wearing, revealing that he had some kind of armor underneath. My shots only pissed him off - he roared and swung a huge, two-handed axe at me, intent on splitting me in two. I jumped aside in the last moment, feeling the displaced air as the mighty cleave passed a few centimeters from my left shoulder. I wasted no time and retaliated with an ill aimed swipe.

The man moved with a surprising agility and almost got out of range. The adamantine teeth of my blade caught his biceps and tore through the muscle, leaving an ugly gash in his left hand. That didn't slow him down in the slightest. He roared in rage and pain, and swung his axe again, as if it was a child's toy instead of a huge weapon that had to weight at least twenty kilograms.

All I could do was to jump back and pray. The swipe did miss me, but it caught the side of my sword and tore it from my hand. I spat a curse and backpedaled. I raised my laspistol and started shooting at the man's head…

I missed as he gave me an ugly smile and charged straight at me.

I stumbled at something and fell on my ass, which left me an easy target. I had just enough time to take a hasty shot and curse my luck, before the madman was towering above me. Then his bloodthirsty grin and the head it was attached to were replaced by pink steam. The headless corpse swung on its feet for couple of seconds, then it started slowly toppling towards me.

"Fuck my luck!" I hissed and rolled away.

"You all right, sir?" Santos was next to me a moment later, offering me a hand.

"Thanks." I muttered. Good fellas, saving my life like that. I think I was going to keep them.

I looked around. The enemy done in, though we didn't emerge unscratched. The first casualty I saw was one of the Astartes. His left arm hanged useless and the arm was missing everything below the elbow. Fuck. Those traitors managed at least on shot more or less on target even when two squads were busy emptying their bolters in them. I was suddenly very glad that I wasn't faced with a real traitor marine and had to content with just an initiate at worst… and he almost took my head too, the wanker.

I shuddered at the thought of how close to dying I got.

"Emperor damned heretics..." I muttered and looked back at where Pickos was. "Fuck."

The LT was all right, though I couldn't say the same for her people. Those bastards that hit them apparently managed to cut down at least half a dozen guardsmen before being shot to pieces – almost literally – the maniacs had so many cauterized holes in them that it was a miracle that they were more or less in one piece.

"Get the wounded on the Chimeras and lets move on before they hit us again!" I ordered.

The poor bastards gutted by those heretics weren't among the wounded – the chain weapons had killed everyone they hit.

I hoped that this was just a raid of opportunity or something, because otherwise we may not make it back. If we were hit by a dozen traitor marines instead, most of us would be gone – I had no doubt about that.

The only good news was that we got a few minutes to load everyone, with the Astartes taking a ride on the roofs, then left without being attacked again. The Emperor only knew if we could make it to friendly held territory without being hit again.