Washed and ready to face the foes of the God-Emperor, Jean exited the ramshackle barracks she and her sisters had built two nights ago in what was once a junkyard. To the east, Jean heard the rythmic bangs of Las-fire, auto rounds and artillery. The Guard had clearly found another nest of cultists in this pitiful warzone. The citizens of Calisto Prime had used it for centuries. Dumping their forgotten waste throughout and piling it higher and higher over the years. Until it had become a great citadel of waste inhabited by the underclasses, forced out of the main settlements due to overpopulation and a growing mutant population. Now, all the citizenry were equal in death.
Jean looked at the bodies that only a day ago littered the junkyard. Every crushed and maimed body on the ground had been piled up. Guardsmen had taken care of it before they had moved on to the next battlefield. A mini, rotting citadel all of it's own gestating in a womb of rusted hulks. They were all the forgotten waste now. Their bodies trampled on by the bloodthirsty Khornate heretics they allowed on the world in the first place.
Jean steeled herself. The heretic Xavier would pay for corrupting a once loyal planet. For causing so much death. Jean tore her gaze away from the macabre sight. Trying to control her rage as Sister Raven had taught her.
"Sister Jean" a voice called behind her. She could hear the stomp of feet. Stroppy and brooding as usual. Sister Anna was many things. But as Raven repeatedly tried to drill into her.
"Heavy feet weigh down a stealthy approach as surely as the bullet that will piece your skull." Jean echoed
"The heretic cares not for your stroppiness, only that you die for their abasement" Anna finished. Rehearsed to a fault.
"You have mastered her lessons, sister. I only heard you a kilometre away this time." Jean bowed as dramatically as was possible in her prayer robes.
Anna crossed her arms. Flicking strands of white hair that invaded otherwise blood red hair.
"You're one to talk, Sister Jean. What was it you said to the heretic yesterday? The one that charged at you with a dart gun. 'I am fire, I am the heat that will burn your filth away' Something like that." Anna's arms remained crossed but her voice seemed filled with mock dramatic embellishment. Until Anna caught herself displaying emotions other than general malaise.
"Wasn't very stealthy. Was it Sister?" Anna continued. Her voice back to factory settings. Stroppy. As the Sister-Superior called it.
"It was a heated moment. Sister. These heretics. Something about them..."
Jean tried her best to quell the rage and heat that threatened to burst out. She barely noticed Anna's confused look. These heretics lit the fire that was not going out. It worried Jean.
"Whatever it is, sister. Don't expect me to cover for your Throne-given backside when Sister-Superior Raven tans it, you know what she says about rage.
"Hate for the heretic is a blessing of the God-Emperor." Jean nodded.
"But rage leads to mistakes." Anna continued.
"And Heretics love your mistakes." Jean finished. And then sighed
"Never mind all this." Anna waved to the bodies. Congealed and festering. Once alive. Now nothing. All for the machinations of the unclean! Focus. She had to focus.
"Sister-Superior is about to give her sermon. We won't hear the end of it if you miss it."
Anna stomped off with Jean following behind. Jean took a second to adjust her hair. Smoothing out loose strands.
Only a few meters to the right of the makeshift barracks lay an equally makeshift shrine. A lowly thing. Scrap metal from the junkyard citadel had been pried from the increasing precarious towers of scrap that dotted the junkyard. Looming over like a fortress of filth. The scrap had been bent, beaten into shape and then glued, welded and tapped together with spit and hyms to the God-Emperor. It was a miniature recreation of the church on Genosha.. Home of the Order of Santo Marco. The holy order of Sororitas that Jean and her battle-sisters belonged to. This was all built around an 8 inch copper figurine of the God-Emperor that rested on a steel chair surrounded by incense and candles. It would have looked down upon his worthy followers were it the original statue's 30 foot height. Instead Sister-Raven saw fit to take a miniaturised copy of that statue. A piece of home and a piece of their faith in Humanity that would never leave them. Jean smiled at the nostalgia of her memories of home. Rolling hills of green and yellow grass. Water clear as crystal trickling down the stream that the original temple was built around. A simpler time. When she was a neophyte of the order. Before the damned dreams.
As the thin sheet metal doors of the shrine creaked open, Jean could hear Sister-Superior Raven. Her surmon had only just started.
"-put it into perspective for you, Sisters. four years! It has been four years since I first assembled our squad to hunt the wicked Xavier and his foul mutant perversion of the human form."
Raven closed her eyes and smiled. But soon that smile turned into a frown.
"In that time. We have lost one of our sisters. She now walks in the light of the God-Emperor as we all will one day." At this, Raven bowed her head in mourning. Jean took a moment to look around. Standing around were all five of the squad, a kill team set the task of hunting down the mutant, Charles Xavier. Who polluted the Imperium with his heretical ideas and caused the deaths of millions of loyal imperial citizens. Sister-Superior Raven, their commander. Stern in the face of the rot lingering in the Imperium. Hard on us. But only so they would not die in vain as many before us did and many after us will. Sister-Lorna, the oldest member and most trusted by Raven. The big sister the squad all loved. Always looking out for us and making sure we shape up to Raven's standards. Sister Elizabeth. Melee expert. One would be hard pressed to part her from her trusted chainsword. She moved like wind through the foes of Man. Sister Irene, our long ranged expert. Able to spot a needle in a heretic skull and shoot it out the other end with the fury of an avenging angel. There was Jean. Heavy weapons expert. Jean preferred the Heavy Flamer. She had always possessed an affinity for fire. Especially when it came time to burn heresy from existence But Jean would never explain why to her sisters. Finally there was Sister Anna. Their newest member, six months ago she replaced dearly departed Sister Laura. A women far too young to go out the way she did. Jean couldn't even bare to think of the brutal remnants of Sister Laura collected for cremation. There would be no burial for so few intact body parts.
"Though we suffered loss. We are stronger for it with the addition of Sister Anna." Raven looked to Anna. She shuffled slightly. Uncomfortable with the attention of all four of the other sisters on her. She never seemed to like attention much. Or praise. It was one of her many quirks.
"A valuable member of our little crusade. I remember the little runt when she came to us. A runaway covered in dirt. Raised to a warrior of the God Emperor. As I have told you before. Taken under all our wings after completing her training. Though even the God-Emperor would be hard pressed to accept her attitude."
The Sisters all laughed at this banter. All except Anna. Who looked more uncomfortable than I thought possible.
"As the Emperor wills." Jean could hear her mutter under her breath past gritted teeth.
"The day has come! Whilst our brave Guardsmen fight with the fury of Rogal Dorn for the plight of this planet, The wicked Xavier who's name I spit on in the memory of our fallen sister has come here!"
Why had Xavier come to Calisto? Jean thought to herself. It didn't make sense. It was a backwater. It held no value. Prehaps the man was desperate? He had run out of places to hide? Even so there were other, better hiding places. Not that Jean would know anything about that of course. The machinations of the heretic were beyond the comprehension of the faithful.
"He has come to this world. Probably to consort with the foul things that even now fall to the might of the brave men to the east of us. They fi-"
It was then that the ground decided to violently rumble. An earthquake? It interrupted Raven's sermon. But that wasn't all. Jean could swear she could hear a roar. A loud roar from the east from something altogether inhuman. Raven glanced to the window just behind her. A look of concern on her face. That she promptly masked with a smile.
"Clearly the heretics are deploying foul witchcraft and beasts. No matter. Our mission is clear now. To the east. Beyond the front lines of corruption. There lies the ruins of a once great city. It's name is unimportant. But the bastard is there. It is where we go! It is where we will fight and spill the blood of those who have wronged Humanity. Steel your hate. Clothe it in righteous retribution for our day has come. Today, Charles Xavier dies! Brutally! We will rip him apart! For Laura! For the br-" Raven was almost spitting at the end but stopped herself before saying something.
Raven's tone at the end was odd. Filled with hate as all Sororitas were to the Arch-Enemy but there was something else. Dare Jean say, rage? The very thing Raven warned us against having. Rage that made one stupid. Easy picking for heretics. As quickly as that thought entered Jean's head Raven spoke up again. Calm restored as if she never lost it. Sister-Lorna looked to Raven with concern. Sharing one of their many looks that were hard for anyone but Raven to decifer.
"I am... fine, Lorna. Truly. As I spoke to Jean before, this crusade of ours has been tiring. I will be looking forward to us all retiring to our home on Genosha once this heretic burns before the gaze of the Emperor. Do you all remember the sea of Scarlet. It's water reflecting the light of the Sun at dawn. Turning red. I would take you all there at the crack of dawn for our morning exercise." Raven lost herself in memory. As all the sisters did. Even Anna had the ghost of a smile. It was such a happy memory. Jean thought. Watching the sun rise and the red of the sea wash away as they jogged, jumped and sung hymns.
"Before we leave to suit up in our power armour I wish to lead us in a hymn" Sister Lorna suggested.
"Oh, I think I know which one this is. My sisters." Sister Elizibeth beamed. She really liked this one.
"By all means." Raven defered. " And a 1 and a 2..."
Wrath of his Brides
Adapted from Joan By Heather Dale
We are as He made us, I have no desire
For a mouth at my breast or a pot on the fire
I heed the higher voices; I go where I'm sent
To mow down the men who refuse to repent
We're a scythe, in a field full of briars
And they won't call us Mother, or Daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of my own
They'll know us as Wrath
They'll know us as Wrath
The courage of Catherine, the flames of the forge
Sword of Sanguinius, the blood of Rogal Dorn
We take what we're given, We follow the truth
We gladly abandon the bloom of our youth
I'm the lashing, that falls from the scourge
And they won't call us Mother, or Daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They'll know me as Wrath
They'll know me as Wrath
Christem ducem
Poena fortis
Et sanguinis effusio
Corda terant
Ut te quaerant
Ieso, nostra redemptio
We fight where He tells me, We never ask why
I've bloodied the Arch-Traitor, with steel from on high
We kill without remorce, heed no Heretic's plee
We sift out the righteous like grain from the straw
We are Judgment, and the Throne is nigh
And they won't call us Mother, or Daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They'll know us as Wrath
They won't call us Mother, or daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They'll know us as Wrath
They won't call us Mother, or daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They'll know us as Wrath
They won't call us Mother, or daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They won't call us Mother, or daughter, or Wife
They will know us or not by the strength of His light
We will burn with a light of our own
They'll know us as Wrath
They'll know us as Wrath
The hymn ended. Even Sister Anna was singing at the end. We all felt the heat in the room rise with our righteousness near the end. Sister-Superior Raven stepped away from the statue.
"To the armoury, sisters! Keep this hymn in your heart as we suit up and march past the Guardsmen towards our goal. The righteous saving of Humanity!" Lorna shouted. Jean cheered. Everyone else joined her. The squad all walked out of the chapel. They were rejuvenated. The end was coming but little did anyone know. It was also the beginning of a new age.