Title: Angelus Erroneous: Fabricati Diem
Author: Spike
Chapter: Three
With my bones aching from being risen from sleep, I strode out across the plateau and looked at the sky.
I blinked and then returned my gaze across the campsite.
Being situated on this planet of hostile forces, we have to resort to guerrilla warfare in the name of survival. We have to remain one step ahead of the enemy and we must not let them achieve an awareness of our presence on this planet. That being said, we never have a permanent base. Instead, we continually find ourselves relying on a temporal camp: One that is located within a discreet location that the Orks would never detect. After countless weeks of travelling, has it been weeks? Time has been drifting past ever since I've arrived here, we have been moving from one location to another, without attracting too much attention.
Because of the mobile nature of our camp, it certainly wasn't an impressive site: All it consisted of were several ramshackle tents made from the most limited of resources. Most of it was sheets of metal that we pillaged from my escape capsule, arranged in a way that it covered us from the worst that the weather of this planet could throw at us. It wasn't very effective but at least it got the job done.
Previously our sleeping arrangement relied on resting in amongst the branches of trees or making ourselves not to look as conspicuous as possible. It was only recently that we tried to make some kind of shelter. It did work, to some degree, but it also meant that we had to move as early in the day as possible and be extra careful that we didn't leave any trace of our presence behind.
In other cases, our sleeping quarters were made from materials we had acquired from one of our many raids upon the Orks. Consequently, we found ourselves utilising a far cruder make of metal and some pieces of equally shambolic cloth. This cloth bore signs of patches that the Orks had stitched together in a pathetic attempt at repairs. The metal wasn't much better: It was hardly the strongest metal in the universe and it riddled with dents. But seeing as we were relying on this stuff to survive, we weren't in any position to complain. In this game of survival, we had to take the good times with the bad times.
Even if the bad times came far too regularly.
I looked down at my injured foot. Staring back at me was a mess of blood, metal and bandages.
I had no idea what Laertes did to my foot (and from the looks of it, it will be best for me not to think about it) but it seemed to do the trick: The pain had stopped and I was able to use it (to some degree).
Just then I grew aware of the presence of another.
I flicked my head around to see, standing some feet away, Laertes making his way across the rocks that encircled our campsite. He didn't seem aware of my presence – instead, he was looking straight ahead – to the sunrise.
My gaze hardened at the sight of the priest. Obviously, he's got something on his mind. But considering the time we have spent in the priest's company, neither myself, nor my fellow outcasts have ever grasped a full idea of what Laertes thinks.
But considering how his mind works, I guess finding out such information would be near impossible.
Laertes, along with Jessie and Deacon, came to this miserable rock through travelling on a piece of wreckage that used to part of a Penal Legion transport ship. He doesn't talk much about his past but in the process of looting the wreck I managed to locate his data slat. This device contained all his records before and during his time on the prison ship.
It also told me everything I needed to know about him. :
Turns out, Laertes actually used to be a priest. Not some clown trying to pretend to be one to escape some certain death or some equally miserable fate (as one would expect in the company of outcasts such as this) but a genuine, bona-fide priest. However this career was cut short when he started preaching an alteration of the Imperial Creed. It wasn't much of an alteration, it was just him making some minor changes to suit the world in which he lived in (or so he told us).
Anyway, Laertes was arrested on the charge of heresy. Naturally, he seemed quite baffled at such a charge and was quite vocal in protesting his innocence. But to what good? No amount of well-chosen words could stop him being loaded into a prison ship with a whole bunch of other scum.
And so, he found himself boarded onto the prison ship. However in that time this wasn't a pleasant time for the former priest. The prison records indicated that the time in both space and isolation, triggered a horrific decline in the priest's behaviour. According to the data records, Laertes was, at first, frightened, having obviously never been in such decrepit conditions before. Obviously being a priest hadn't prepared him for the usual horrors of a prison ship – rotten food, putrid living quarters, brutal guards and a motley crew of the worst offenders from every corner of the Imperium. Consequentially, Laertes grew increasingly sickened with the terrible images that confronted him every waking hour. Gradually however, he then grew into a state of disbelief: He was baffled as to why he had been placed into such a miserable hell-hole when all he had given so much in the name of the Emperor. Now, he was gradually become convinced that the Emperor had turned his back on him – and when Laertes was loyal in his devotion (well, in his own eyes at least), this wasn't a very easy concept to grasp. As such, he would spend many hours pacing in his cell jabbering on to himself and, occasionally, falling to his knees demanding a sign from the God-Emperor so his devotion hasn't gone unnoticed.
However, when such a sign didn't come, Laertes went under a final change in behaviour: He arrived at the realisation that the Emperor had been disappointed with his work as a priest. Thus, Laertes became determined to seek absolution in the eyes of the Emperor. However such a venture also meant that something precious to Laertes had to be abandoned:
His sanity.
Thus, as the days of incarceration wore on, Laertes grew obsessed with finding redemption in the Emperor's gaze that his state of mind careered into that of a zealot. Now he had a goal he was also infused with the will of a fanatic to see it through.
This, as the records told me, made life in the prison rather problematic for both the guards and the other prisoners. Whenever he was in his cell, he would spend nearly of all the time pacing up and down, screaming praises to the Emperor and throwing himself to his knees in a redemptive manner. Outside of his cell, he tried to escape the prison compound on several occasions, claiming that the Emperor needed him to hunt down all those heretics who had forsaken His name. Yet, even as he escaped, he always managed to be located again – yet no amount of failed escape attempts did a single thing to cease his steely resolve.
Although the guards would almost have been used to criminals being overcome with a sense of fanaticism to the Emperor, they did somewhat annoyed with Laertes as he was a repeat offender. His many escape attempts were the tip of a very large iceberg: Some of his crimes with the Penal Legion included striking many people for taking the Emperor's name in vain, starting fights with people who dared mention the names of the four chaos gods, trying to kill anyone who dare interfere with his good work, striking various commanding officers (he often claimed they were trying to stop him with his Emperor-sanctioned mission), inciting several revolts in amongst the ranks. There were even reports of several incidents involving some fellow Legionaries being nailed to giant crosses of crude construction and being left to die (of course, Laertes denied this, saying only that those unfortunates got what was coming to them).
With such an extensive list of offences, no one in the Penal Legion had the gall to bother him. Once it became clear on exactly what he was like, everyone chose to avoid Laertes. Frequently, he tried to give speeches to his fellow legionnaires, demanding they join him in his 'holy crusade' – but he didn't always succeed. And even from the times that he did find success, it was usually from disgruntlement in amongst the ranks. Naturally, however these 'crusades' never did get far and Laertes would eventually be caught and severely punished. But these punishments did nothing more than strengthen his will to keep on with this crusade. And in the terms of standing steadfast against adversity, Laertes was someone who would give Confessor Dolan a run for his money.
If anything, Laertes has committed the most offences out of all of us.
And somehow he, along with Jessie and Deacon, managed to survive the destruction of the Penal Legion transport ship that crashed here on this rock. Of course, Laertes would have no hesitation in declaring such an incident a sign from the Emperor that he was looking over his disciple.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, being situated on an Ork-infested beyond the fringes of Imperial space has done nothing to change Laertes' behaviour. He still won't tolerate anyone taking the Emperor's name in vain and he is quite vocal in protesting our amount of cursing and the rough language we use. Indeed, there have been several occasions already where he has clashed with everyone else. However, it didn't take us long to realise just how easily we could manipulate Laertes' single-minded devotion: Once we convinced him that this was an Ork world and the Orks in question had all turned their back on the enlightened path, the priest had no hesitation in declaring that he must purge all the heretics in the Emperors name.
Naturally, this makes him terribly effective in combat but, at the same time, something of a problem considering he frequently becomes blinded with his fanaticism. Consequently, in the heat of combat, he goes out on his own, pursuing the Orks with righteous zeal and he needs us to him bring back to his senses.
In that sense, Laertes isn't really the type of person who would be well situated to a guerrilla war. Indeed, if he had his way, he would've killed all the Orks in this world by now.
But then again, that thought isn't as bad as it sounds……
I blinked, breaking from my reverie. I smiled and approached the spot to where the priest stood.
He then flicked his head around, sensing my approach and smiled.
"Good morning to you Narc" he greeted.
"Yeah, hi" I grunted in reply, as I sat down beside him.
Laertes raised an eyebrow at my limp reply.
I half-expected him to react to the somewhat uncouth nature of my reply by careering off into one of his dreaded lectures but no such thing came.
Thankfully
"What are you doing up so early?" I inquired.
"I just want to see this wondrous sight before me" he grinned, raising his hand before the sunrise.
I raised my hand to my head. Oh no, here we go….
"Isn't it wonderful?" the priest continued. "And why shouldn't it be? It's the Emperor's own creation after all!"
I raised an eyebrow as he continued:
"Ah, it's time like these that make me feel glad to be alive! Alive in the Emperor's universe and ready to butcher all of the heretics that dare challenge his name!"
I grimaced at this line. You've got to be kidding me…
But unfortunately for me, Laertes caught my expression. And immediately his smile vanished.
"What's your problem?" he said sternly.
My blood went cold. It didn't take a Tech-Priest of Mars to detect that sense of menace that was beginning to radiate in this situation.
"Can't you take the time to appreciate the things that are going around you?" Laertes said. "It is a new day! We have been presented with another opportunity to prove ourselves in the eyes of the emperor!
As the priest continued rattling on, I got to my feet.
"We have another day to fill of slaughtering heretics in his name! We…"
"Oh, cut the crap" I snapped at him.
Laertes blinked at this sudden interruption but it didn't take long for him to get angry.
"How dare you speak to me like that!" he snarled. "You have violated one of the sacred laws of the Imperial Creed! And for that I'll…."
"You'll do what?" I retorted. "Punish me?"
This sent Laertes really right off: With a look of absolute fury, he grabbed my by the front of my shirt.
"You bet I will" he snarled.
This situation was one of utter suicide: Just who, in their right mind, would dare challenge someone who has such a fanatic zeal? But I'm not hardly worried: I'm not scared of Laertes. And I would rather waste some ammo on the Orks (who more than deserve it) than one of the humans I have to travel with.
"And just how do you intend to do that?" I challenged. "Are you going to call upon your almighty God-Emperor to smite me down from the heavens?"
Laertes blinked.
"You know something?" he said "That doesn't sound like a bad idea"
"Yeah, I'm sure he will hear you out here"
"What?!"
"Oh face facts will you?!" I roared at him.
Laertes was so surprised by this sudden outburst that he let go of my shirt.
"How can you remain faithful to your God-Emperor in a situation such as this?!" I snarled. "We are stranded on this planet, far beyond the borderlines of the Imperium full of hostile forces without anyone knowing where we are or anyone caring!
"And are we here by our own will? Of course not! We are here because we escaped certain death at the hands of the Imperium which we fight so hard for! We can leave any time we want to but does anyone want to? No way – we take one foot off this planet and we'll be located by Imperial forces and executed.
"What a way to go for such a 'loyal servant of the God-Emperor'" I said, my voice radiating with sarcasm.
Laertes shook with rage.
"The Emperor looks after all his children!" he thundered "No matter wherever they are in this universe! Nor what they have done previously!!"
"Well then" I argued. "If the God-Emperor is so great than exactly what was he thinking when he had me on a shambolic trial just so some Imperial general can save his career?! And what was he thinking when he had you deported to prison, eh?"
"That was a test of faith!" Laertes countered. "He has brought us here to purge the Orkish heretics in his name! And once he does that, he will welcome us into his light!!"
"Oh this is absurd" I snarled. And with that, I turned and strode away.
"At least I've retained my faith!!" Laertes shouted after me.
"But at what cost?" I muttered.
Suddenly, my stride was interrupted.
It came in the form of the ground in front of me exploding with a series of bullets.