Unknown history
"No, Georgia." Kay said sharply as the Hospitallar tried to serve her a drink. "Stop that! I am not your teaching mistress anymore."
"You are still an elder sister." Georgia said serenely as she held the tea out to Kay who took it with ill grace. "We owe you deference at the very least."
"Geez!" Kay sipped the tea and smiled a bit forlornly. "Maybe someday, I can get it through your head that I am not better than any of you. Just older."
"Good luck with that." Karne sounded distinctly amused as Georgia pouted. Kay glared at her but the glare bounced off the armored woman like a light caliber round. "She is a bit stubborn, our Hospitallar."
"Some things never change." Kay sighed deeply as she sat back.
For his part, Ricardo was just observing. Observing the Sisters and Kay. They obviously knew each other very well. The other sisters were arrayed around the walls with Mace by the door. They had repaired to this smaller room, one with recorders activated. It also had several high tech defenses built into the walls, but Ricardo wasn't sure about those now. Not with Kay being able to escape a stasis field. Kay nodded to him.
"You have been very quiet, Inquisitor." Kay said with a small frown. "I assume you have many questions."
"Small understatement there." Ricardo said softly. "My problem is… I don't know what I can ask." Kay nodded soberly. All of the armed Sisters were on hair trigger still. Karne hadn't released her sword hilt this whole time and the other sisters were little better.
"You can ask anything, but you will want to be circumspect in what you ask and I may not be able to answer." Kay said with a frown. "There are a lot of things I simply cannot speak of. I am sworn never to speak of some things and others?" She shrugged. "No one wants to know." Ricardo nodded. He knew that feeling. "You are Ordo Hereticus. Which doesn't mean as much out here in Caligari since you have to do a bit of everything."
"Yes." Ricardo worked hard to stay noncommittal. Kay nodded approval.
"I know this whole situation has tossed you for a loop." Kay said with a shrug. "I am not an enemy of the Imperium. I never have been."
"Hard to prove." Ricardo replied.
"Yeah, that it is and we don't really have time for me to go over a few thousand years worth of my mistakes." Kay sipped her tea again and shook her head. "I am no heretic. I believe in the Emperor." Ricardo's eyes narrowed and she nodded. "He created me."
"He what?" That came from both Ricardo and Mace. Mace stilled, but Ricardo slowly shook his head.
"Georgia?" Kay asked the Hospitallar who suddenly looked ashen. "You had to keep poking. You figured out most of it. Want to explain?"
"He won't believe me." Georgia protested.
"He is not going to believe anyone without concrete facts, Georgia. Maybe not even then." Kay retorted without heat. "Ferreting out truth from lies is his job." The Inquisitor stared at her and she smiled. It was impish, that smile. "Yes, I have dealt with your agency more than once. Some of them were quite good. Others? Not so much."
"That is the way of any organization." Ricardo replied, still reeling from her casual dropping of the fact that she had been created. That made her what? An artifact? A xenos? Some kind of mutant? She was very sharp eyed. She picked up his hesitation before he even registered it himself.
"I am human, Inquisitor." Kay said softly. "Not a mutant, or a psyker no matter what some of my abilities may look like. I am no god, no daemon. I owe no allegiance to any power but myself and the Emperor." She bowed her head. "That said, I do not bow to the Ministorium or Ecclesiarchy except when I must to preserve my cover identity." She actually snicked. "Alicia was a good role model for that."
"I think I do need to hear this." Ricardo nodded to Georgia who frowned. "You investigated her?"
"Her records said one thing, but none of my gene scanning equipment worked around her." Georgia said with a wince. "I tried less obvious means."
"She tried to take a clandestine blood sample and I hit her so hard I knocked her out." Kay corrected the Hospitallar gently. "That was dumb, Georgia. I take my privacy very seriously."
"What would that have shown?" Ricardo asked, curious.
"The tech you have now? Nothing." Kay shook her head. "It is not sensitive enough to detect what the Emperor did to make me. Defending myself was instinctive. She didn't mean anything by it, she was just curious." She shrugged. "Curiosity almost killed the cat in this case."
"So… what?" Ricardo asked, ignoring the odd turn of phrase. He had no idea what a 'cat' was.
"So, when she woke, she and I had a long talk with her Canoness about history." Kay said sternly to Georgia who winced. "So... Georgia?"
The Hospitallar nodded and started to speak.
A forgotten planet, a forgotten war
They were holding, but not by very much. The heretical hordes charged again and the massed fire of the weapons of the Faithful threw them back in steaming masses yet again. But ammunition was running low. The heavy weapons kept the hordes of mutated horrors out of their ranks for now, but when those ran dry? Things would get bad.
"We need to fall back!" Alicia Dominica was many things. She had been called fanatic, zealot and worse. She was not a fool. "We cannot hold this position!"
"Know your place-" A guardsman started, only to fall as Alicia backhanded him. Bone audibly snapped as her power armor augmented her slap. Only a fool talked back to Alicia Dominica and never more than once. Several of his fellows raised their lasguns, but she had her bolt pistol in hand and her sisters had their weapons aimed sort of at the enemy and sort of at the altercation.
"My place?" Alicia said through gritted teeth as the commander of the joint force stared at her in shock. 'Is that what you think to, General?"
"Where can we go, Daughter of the Emperor?" The general in charge of the expedition looked tired. Indeed, everyone was tired. They had been fighting nonstop for almost two days. "Our landing craft are destroyed and our communications are jammed."
They had walked right into this trap. They had been expected. Somehow, the hordes of chaos worshipers on the planet had known they were coming and where they would land. It had been a slaughter at the landing zone and only the fervor of the sisters and the Guard's heavy armor had managed to break the battered force free of the kill zone. All but one of the tanks were gone now, picked to pieces by wave after wave of screaming horrors. As if to punctuate, the last surviving Leman Russ fired its main cannon again, but they too had to be running low on ammo. At least the lascannon the tank had fixed in its front mount needed no ammo, but it wasn't that useful against waves of screaming cultists.
"There have to be communication facilities we can use or repair." Alicia kept her voice calm and assured. "This world hasn't been lost long enough for all of the tech to be broken beyond repair. I refuse to fail the Emperor this way."
"I would prefer to serve the Emperor a bit longer myself, Milady." The general said sourly. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"We need long range vox." Alicia said with a nod. "As I passed the last ridge line, I saw a broadcast tower to our west. If we can get there and hook into it, even if it isn't functional as is, it can still boost our signals." The general stared at her and then shook his head. "I can get there, General."
"That is at least two kilometers through a horde of maddened beasts, Daughter." The general said firmly. "We would have to attack all along that front to give you any chance of success." A blast to the left drew every eye, but then people went back to their fields of fire when nothing more happened.
"Sir!" A call came from nearby. "Sector three reports a stopped suicide bomber caused a cave-in into some kind of tunnel system!"
"More heretics coming!" Came the call and Alicia snarled as she took up position in what limited cover was available, her sisters also taking aim again as well.
"I knew my time would come." Alicia said sadly over her squad's vox. "I just didn't think it would be so soon. The Emperor protects and-" She was cut off.
"You serve the Emperor?" A new voice sounded over the vox! Female, but not one of her sisters! "Where is he? What has happened?"
That wasn't possible! The codes for her sister's vox were some of the most closely guarded secrets that Alicia and her company held. Alicia snarled and fired as the first cultists came into sight, flinging themselves at the dwindling line of Imperial troops with furious abandon with no regard for their lives. They existed simply to get the Imperials to waste ammunition. The heavier troops were coming. Alicia knew that in her bones.
"I am a little busy!" Alicia snapped. "We can do a question and answer if we survive what these chaos loving scum are planning!"
"Do you require assistance?" The other asked.
"What kind of a question is that?" Alicia screamed as a huge shell flew over her head to slam into he Leman Russ. The cultists had artillery! The shell burst into flame and she heard the screams of the crew as they were burnt alive. Larger forms appeared in the distance! Traitor Space Marines! No wonder this trap was so well done! "We are being overrun!"
"Then I have only one word for you." The other sounded anticipatory. "Incoming."
What the-?
Alicia was hardly the only person on the line to shout in shock as the entire left side of their hasty perimeter seemed to explode. No. Not explode! Something was heaving its way out of the ground! Something massive, rusted and ancient looking. The General was staring at the vehicle in shock. He seemed frozen and Alicia threw herself at the man as a cultist with a lasrifle he had to have looted from a dead Imperial took aim at him. She shot that cultist even as the General fell with an 'oof' out of the line of fire.
Then the newly unearthed machine opened fire on the cultists and the stunned Chaos Space Marines. Just like that, the tide turned. Alicia could see that not all of its weapons were functional. It didn't matter! Where the horde had been on the verge of victory, suddenly a pair of massive booms from the turret heralded two equally massive explosions in the distance. The squad of traitors vanished in a huge fireball and an oddly shaped cannon flew end over end the other way. A cry of alarm spread through their ranks even as the machine spun on its axis, heavy bolters chewing through the suddenly disorganized ranks.
"The Emperor protects." The female voice spoke again over the vox. Then she snarled and her voice was audible. "Die, you treasonous filth!"
All of its functioning weapons were raining death on the now fleeing horde. Alicia doubted a tenth of them would make it out of range, especially when the remainder of the Imperials opened fire. The rout became a slaughter that did not last long. None of the horde escaped. Only then did Alicia take stock. Her sisters looked a bit the worse for wear, but the Imperial troops had fared worse without the power armor and weapons that the Sister took for granted. The general looked up from the torn body of his aide and then at the tank in the distance.
"That is a Stormhammer. An ancient Imperial superheavy tank. I studied such in the Academy where I was trained." The general said as he rose to his feet slowly. "Where did it come from?"
"I have coms with..." Alicia shrugged helplessly. "...someone. I think I better ask while you reorganize what we have left." Alicia started forward, her sisters moving to flank her. All were battered. Nina was limping but when Alicia looked at her, the other sister waved her concern away.
"I have been hit worse." Nina growled. "We need to get the hell off this benighted world." All of them paused as their vox crackled.
"This world is the Emperor's." The unknown voice said sternly. "You cannot simply abandon it to darkness."
"Who are you?" Alicia demanded. "I am Alicia Dominica, leader of the Adepta Sororitas."
"The what?" The other asked, perplexed. "I… ah… I slept a long time, didn't I? He said I might. Hang on a sec. One of you may enter. Only one." A hatch clanged open on the tank's side.
"Alicia..." Nina growled as Alicia stepped forward.
"If she wanted us dead, I think we would be." Alicia said sternly. "See about scouting that array. We need to get word to the fleet."
"The array is sound." The other reassured her. "That is how I am communicating with you. I can give you access."
"And how do you have our codes?" Alicia demanded. She waved at another sister who started pulling her com gear open.
"I could ask you the same." The other sounded perplexed. "You serve the Emperor but he doesn't just give such codes out."
"Who are you?" Alicia breathed as she peered into the tank and saw nothing but gloom even with her helmet's improved senses. She stepped in and froze as it lit up. The interior looked nothing like the interior of any Imperial tank she had ever seen. It was clean, pristine almost. A far cry from the rusted, ruined exterior.
"My name is Kay." The voice was aloud and came from a human female in golden power armor who sat in an odd chair near the center of the vehicle. She wore no helmet that Alicia could see, but odd shimmering was all around her head. The armor was familiar! But the woman wearing it was Alicia's size. Not a Custodes then. She didn't think they had women in their ranks anyway. Which was just as well. They were scary enough as it was.
"Where is the crew?" Alicia said weakly. Any Imperial tank of this size would have a crew of at least a dozen soldiers and perhaps a techpriest assigned as well to keep it functioning.
"I am the crew." Kay said simply. "I have slept here for a long, long time, Alicia Dominica of the Adepta Sororitas. The Emperor ordered me to await his return. He did not. What happened?"
She sounded so lost and alone. Alicia's heart went out to this wayward sister.
"Do you remember the year when you went to sleep?" Alicia asked gently as she stepped forward. Kay rose from her seat and she was a bit smaller than Alicia even in her beautiful armor. Kay spoke a date and Alicia nodded, her heart heavy. "I see. Then you don't know. Shortly after that, the great traitor Horus turned on the Emperor."
"What?" Kay wasn't faking her sudden shock. No way. "The warmaster?"
"Yes." Alicia stepped forward and took Kay's hand in her own. It trembled in her armored grip. "His heresy swept the galaxy in blood and fire. The Emperor defeated him, but was mortally wounded in the process."
"NO!" Kay screamed in denial. "He is the Emperor! He cannot be dead!"
"He is not." Alicia said with a smile. "His power allows him to endure even now. He is and always will be our Emperor. And now, I think I know why we were sent here. Well met, sister." She pulled Kay into as close an embrace as she could manage in armor. "We have a fleet in orbit, but our initial landing fell afoul of a planned trap. Can this vehicle move further?"
"I… um..." Kay swallowed hard and shook her head. A screen flared into being nearby. It was not anything Alicia had ever seen, but after all this? She just rolled with that. It showed the tank mostly highlighted in red lines. Kay slumped a bit. "No. I broke the drive train fairly thoroughly smashing down the hangar doors that held it for so long."
"Considering you saved my life and the lives of all of my sisters?" Alicia led Kay towards the hatch. "I won't blame you this time. Don't let it happen again." She smiled to show that was a joke.
"It was just a machine." Kay said weakly as Alicia drew her to the hatch. "But it was home. He commanded me to wait for him. I have to-"
"He couldn't come. I bet he sent us to bring you home." Alicia said firmly as she pulled Kay out into the light. A crowd of Imperials had gathered around the machine now and all of the sisters stood wary watch. "You are not alone." She nodded to the stunned crowd. "This is Kay, my sister. She has returned to us."
All of the assembled sisters bowed to Kay who bowed back. The Imperials didn't seem to know how to react, but then the General stepped forward and saluted her. Every one of the surviving Guards did likewise. Kay seemed at a loss and Alicia nodded to the General who dropped his salute.
"My sister has been asleep for a long time and she will need time to recover as well as to acclimatize herself to this time." Alicia said firmly. "Nina?" She acknowledged the other sister when Nina made a gesture.
"Coms are restored. We think the traitors were jamming and they are blown to pieces." The wounded sister still looked like hell, but she was still standing and knowing her? Anyone who tried to offer aid would get hurt. "The fleet is sending more troops. This time escorted by fighters and gunships." A sour sound came from everyone at that.
"A day late and a dollar short." Kay said with a grunt. Alicia snickered at the other's sour voice even if she didn't understand the phrase. "Command me, Sister Alicia."
"As you said, Sister Kay: This world is the Emperor's." Alicia said firmly as the sounds of engines thundered down out of the sky. "The foe has many faces, many tricks and traps, but they can be faced and fought with skill and steel. With faith and fire."
She held up an armored fist to the heavens. Kay did the same along with the other sisters as gleaming trails split the sky towards the landing zone. The General did the same and suddenly, every Imperial was standing with raised fist. They all shouted as one. Their cry was one heard across the galaxy.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!"