Michael felt the slight ease of pressure in his skull as the strike cruiser The Pure came out of the warp, behind him the bridge became a hive of activity as dozens of servitors begun working by their stations. Michael could care less about them though, their work was not his to worry about, instead he focused on the view as the steel curtains over the frontal viewport slid away now that they were out of the warp, revealing the emptiness of space.
Safe for one little dot.
Squinting his brown eyes he focused on the little dot, quickly discerning the green and blue that was the civilised world of Lem. Pushing aside the official facts he had read about it in his file on it, that never did a world any justice, he instead pondered his situation.
The curse of unbelief, if the garbled and quickly ended emergency message was accurate the chances of them facing such a taint was high. If that was the case he was not worried, when infected a planet was merely reactive, as such they could easily handle and contain its taint, unless survivors...
Containment, that was important. "Helmsman, I want the starports of the planet to be destroyed as soon as we're in range."
"Yes brother." Came the curt reply.
Turning Michael found himself looking at the three other marines on the bridge. All were already dressed in their pockmarked and chipped armour of the Fire Spectres. Dark red armour and black shoulder pads showing their symbol of the ghostly hand clawing a flame. By now Michael barely noticed it when he wasn't fixing his own or checking a brother's wounds when his armour had failed him.
The marine in the centre had been the one speaking, his helmet already clipped on, as were the others. Only Michael's was off, revealing a hairless square face, even the eyebrows were gone, burnt away by a lictor's acidic bite long ago. The central marine put his hands behind his back. "Are you sure the transmission was correct then brother-captain?"
Arching what had once been an eyebrow the captain turned to the marine on the left, that one's armour having the addition of a hood of steel covered in ornate copper rods. "Brother librarian?"
The marine hesitated for a moment, probably closing his eyes beneath his helmet as he cast his ethereal vision adrift. It always gave Michael the chills to have a 'pure' marine marked by such a dangerous curse, but so far there had been no incident under Michael's watch. "There are many souls within the planet, between life and death, in neither. I believe the transmission was correct brother."
"Excellent." Michael turned to the last marine, the marine's armour a different shade of red and arcs of lighting moving over his shoulder pads due to the small generators stuck there whose purpose was mystery to Michael. "Techmarine Fichus, can you locate our artefact?"
The air got a little colder at the question. Despite having gone through the scenario before and resolved what to do with the planet in case of their interpretation of what the transmission meant was correct it was still a bold move they had decided upon. Space marines or not, going against the will of the inquisition was not lightly done.
"Yes." The marine nodded, though despite his full armour he looked hesitant. "It will take time however. It depends upon where it is located, under how much ground...and of course any seals of blocking the inquisitor might have put up. That is...if the mark of detection is still upon it?"
Michael managed a ghost of a smile. "Do not worry brother, if the inquisitor found out about it he would no doubt have confronted us about it. Believe me, I was there." He snorted at the memory, it was more then fifty years ago, but the bitter memory of having to bow to such a fool still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Corrupting inscription...the mere suggestion that the Fire Spectres would allow corruption to spread within their ranks was laughable!
But what could one expect of the inquisitors? They took no chances when they could avoid it, but now they would rectify past injustices...whatever any nosy inquisitor might say.
Perhaps sensing his thoughts librarian Ewain spoke out: "Brother captain, is this really wise? If the inquisition finds out about our involvement in this procedure they might become suspicious, if so they might stumble upon the marks of our actions...which could bring us some problems."
"Then we will leave no marks they might stumble upon." Michael replied, hands clasped behind back. "Brothers, in approximately a month our battle barge will be here, she carries enough guns to properly purge this planet of its taint. Meanwhile however we much contain the disease while pursuing our true objective, is that understood?"
"But brother, if the inquisition finds out-"
"They will not, how will they when the whole planet has been scorched down to its crust?" Michael interrupted, annoyed with the pensiveness of his brothers, true Fire Spectres should fear no bully of the empire's most morbid of organisations...they were stronger than that damn it! "And what would they do if they did? They already hate us as it is."
"They could put us on trial." Fichus suggested, shrugging.
Michael snorted. "And say what? That we were in the area when an artefact they stole disappeared? Any trial would be ridiculous. We were simply doing a routine purge, and if they wish to search our ships they can ask my bolter." He smirked at the thought. "We cooperate to a point with those people brothers, but only to a point, remember that. Now stop worrying."
"Yes brother." The others intoned, bowing slightly. Then Ewain added: "Fichus searching will take time brother-captain, and surely we will not stand idle meanwhile? You are not one to wait and see."
Michael glared at the other marine. "Stay out of my head."
Instantly the librarian bowed, lower then normally expected. "My apologies brother, but I did no such thing, I merely remarked on your character, which I know of from years of fighting with you."
"Very well." Michael nodded, silently apologising. He of course realised it was what his fellow marine had meant, but he liked keeping loose cannons like librarians and initiates in a short leash. "And you are correct, while brother Fichus searches for the mark of detection you will cast your vision out and find any survivors."
He could almost see the librarian grimace within his helmet. "While I find the thought of looking through so many lost souls repugnant I will of course do so... I must ask however, why brother? Surely there is a reason for this?"
"We will use this moment to recruit."
A snort escaped the central marine. "Recruit brother-captain? There might be a hundred survivors on the planet by now, probably less, why try to find a passable recruit in such a place?"
Michael momentarily clenched his fist, showing he would allow no disrespect, though the helmsman didn't react, being a pure Fire Spectre as he was. Good. "Yes, and these survivors are a fine selection of the population. Many might have survived by chance, others might be those useless women...but the strong are those who survives the natural selection as this curse...and we will find them."
"More men would be good, we had far too many losses on the Dalmarian campaign." The helmsman muttered, making them all nod. It had been a catastrophic campaign, too many orks, too many eldar tricks...the Fire Spectres had finally pulled out and let the imperial guard die instead. A shame they hadn't made that decision sooner...too many companies were still understrength.
"Exactly, so we will try to rectify that."
Fichus cocked his head to the side. "But with the taint of the planet...how can we be sure we won't introduce it into the chapter itself?"
Michael nodded with a frown on his face, having considered it. "We must tighten the tests further on all found subjects, triple-check them even. And once they are given the gift of being turned into an astartes there will be no doubt that they are as pure as any of us." He glanced at the libratrian. "After all, being a marine of the Spectre's is the definition of purity, is it not?"
Ewain bowed, his voice calm as he spoke: "Many will no doubt fail brother, what about them?"
"As I said, we are here to purge the planet of all taint, potential or current makes no difference."
