Chapter six
"Strike me down, Eternity I'll embrace. For tens of hundreds more shall take my place. Though the wrath of gods I'll incur, I fear naught for I am the harbinger."
Attributed to Ollanius Pearson Saint of the Imperial army turned Guard. M31
Location unknown Japan 2011 M 3
A women woke to the sound of her heart beating and the smell of a hospital. She tried desperately to open her eyes and see where she was, a lesson beaten into her by the school's instructors. Finally, after struggling for a while, she managed to accomplish this task.
It was indeed a hospital, but it was unlike anything that this woman had ever seen. It was very futuristic, and she could not make out even a hint of what the various machines around the room she was in did. She tried to stand but a voice came out of a speaker that was over her left shoulder on the wall behind her.
"I see you are awake I will be right there to help you. Please do not get up, your body went through a severe case of shock, and you could hurt yourself."
That sentence carried more kindness than what the woman laying in the hospital bed had received in over three months. It truly had been three months of pseudo hell, it was significantly better than serving with the church. She was at least half the time referred to a slightly useful, a significant improvement over just being referred to by her exorcist number. She had not had a real name since childhood, but she had been forced to forget that name when she had entered the service of the catholic church and again when the smallest hints of it tried returning before her work with the cadre of fallen that had picked her up on the streets of Florence.
The memory of the fallen jolted her into a state of readiness of what had happened last she was awake. The cadre had been slaughtered to the last man! And now it looked like she was a prisoner of the one who had been the cause of it. She was shaking in fear when the door opened, and a woman entered.
She was quite beautiful with eyes of gold that seemed to be like the sun. Her hair was a mix of red, black, and brown, a very unusual color combination. She was dressed in clothing that was like the devices in the room futuristic and it was sleek and well made. The woman tried to get up and defend herself this might be the monster that had put her here, a question however stabbed its way into her head. Why am I not dead?
The golden eyed woman tapped a button on the wall and out of the curve in that wall a nozzle came forth and the unknown woman put a plastic cup underneath the hose and a blue liquid flowed into the cup. After the container was full, the woman brought it to her fellow in the bed and handed the mug over.
The woman in bed looked at the cup with clear suspicion the unasked question visible in her grey eyes.
"It is not poison. The medicine will help you with getting over the shock of last night. And no, I nor my father have a desire to kill you."
That instead of reassuring the patient instead made her dip further towards the fear that had ruled a good portion of her life. Seeing this the unknown woman remarked.
"I shall know no fear. That is my father's mantra. I find it simple and complex but try embracing it."
How could someone never know fear? Fear was an emotion that had been with humanity since the beginning of creation, the question repeated again. How do you know no fear? The woman pressed on kindly looking with her eyes to her fellow with understanding and sympathy.
"I promise. We do not want to hurt you."
How could she trust this person or any person after what had been done to her, how could she have faith when she was always at the bottom, always a slave. She had lost faith in God the moment her childhood ended in that orphanage with that wolf of a priest who when he had grown tired of her had thrown her to the sharks.
She vaguely remembered words that had been spoken by the monster while he had gazed down at her before she had embraced unconsciousness.
"I know no fear and you are worth remembering."
Those words struck a chord in her soul. She was worth remembering. She was worth something, in contrast to the monsters in the church who had always told her that her life was meaningless. This person who had been the killer of the cadre, he and his daughter saw something in her that was worth remembering.
"I shall know no fear."
The words fell from the woman in beds lips and at long last after 23 years of fear and hopelessness, today the former exorcist that had embrace fear at the end, was reborn from the ashes like a phoenix. She knew no fear.
And reached for the cup.
Unknown location Japan 2011 M 3
The patient had stayed in that bed for two weeks. Her minders had immediately offered to help fix the damage that had been inflicted on her body. Scars that were never commented upon by the healer that had overseen her, those scars of the past were piece by piece removed healing, her physically and in her soul.
Halfway through her stay for healing she has finally met the other woman's father.
The young man had the same eyes and hair as his daughter. He was younger than his daughter by a few years but that was not the biggest puzzle about him. His face was more perfect than the face of the one pure angel she had the off chance of meeting. He could be considered a god of beauty if he really wanted that title. When she had let that slip on accident so overwhelmed by his presence, he had shaken his head and a little bit of disgust entered his voice.
"There are no gods. Just men and women. I am not and never will be a god, I am what humans could be if we left behind the shackles of those who claim to be gods. I am Issei Hyoudou, and I will one day fully embrace the title of the Master of Mankind. I will throw off the shackles that the beings that call themselves gods and I will free humanity and those of the other side be they Youkai, Devil, fallen or pure angels and more from their bondage. To the sky and beyond. So, it shall be."
The bedridden woman had wanted to laugh at this young man, to call him the height of arrogance and narcissism, but the way he spoke, the way he felt. There was no hint of doubt no hint of fear. I shall know no fear. Those words had also become her mantra, a way to keep herself steady and in the real. This young man did not fear gods.
He was not as he said a god many could look at him like one, but he spoke the truth. He was a man, the greatest human that would ever exist. He was willing to sacrifice himself for a dream of a truly better tomorrow for everyone. He understood faith better than anyone else and that faith was not in gods, but in his fellow sentient beings who shared this hunk of rock. That, that was a faith that she could and would embrace and make her own. No gods only humanity in All forms. She would serve the Master of Mankind, and never look back.
The second week after meeting her new lord she was asked by the now named Daliea if she wanted her new comrades to help with her mental scars. In the end she had said yes to only the most painful of memories such as her childhood, the rest she would remember and take strength from now that she was entering a better part of her life. She did not understand all of what Daliea had said the device that she was hooked up to would do, but it was enough to know that it would help.
After the sessions were completed, it was more liberation. No longer was she struck by flashbacks of those nights with the priest, and when she came out of the room that had held her for healing. Her lord had asked her name. She had told them both that she had been forced to leave her name in service to God. Her lord and newfound sister had become more disgusted before once again saying she deserved to be remembered. She had thought long and hard before after searching through all the names she had heard in her life; she had chosen a new name.
"Caroline. My name is and always shall be Caroline."
Town of Miki Kato Japan the forge of dreams 2011 M 3
She had not been the only one that her lord had helped recover from the abuse heaped on them by the church. Freed Sellzen had also been taken by the master of mankind. His problems, like Caroline's, had been deep.
Genetic instability had led the now revealed clone of the hero Sigurd into being the monster he had become. Clone madness brought by the imperfect cloning process had so damaged him that the Freed who stood before her now was a new man in every single way possible.
He showed genuine remorse for the lives he had taken in his madness and had dropped to his knees begging Caroline for forgiveness for the many times in their service to the cadre that he had threatened with true intent to gut her and the others like stuffed pigs. Caroline had looked him in the eyes and accepted the apology. They had both been damaged by the church. He had just shown his scars more openly.
She had, after accepting his apology, stared long and hard at him before saying to him in no uncertain terms.
"If you ever go back into that darkness Freed, and attempt to kill our lord or my sister. I will be the one doing the gutting. We have both been given the chance to be part of something greater than ourselves where we matter. Do not betray this opportunity. Because it will never come again."
Freed had nodded his head in agreement with her words.
The rest of the year had been spent getting the two new members of this faction used to the technology and weapons of war that would build the dream. Caroline had returned to her childhood dream of wanting to be a doctor and with access to Daliea's database she was slowly but steadily learning how to instead of inflicting pain, she would soothe it and turn the world into a place where disease would be slowly destroyed and would let all live better lives.
Freed would serve with his lord on the field of battle, the battle mania was mostly gone now but hints of it remained, it was never enough for freed to lose control of himself and Issei when he noticed it had given the former exorcist battle mantras to control the blood lust and keep him on the path of light. Freed took to the weapons of the forty-second millennia with an ease that was clear to see. He in his spare time would read the copies of the Codex Astates and the Tactica Imperialis further refining his knowledge of war.
He and his lord would move and attack further strongholds in Japan and near the last quarter of 2011 the bases in Korea and eastern China of those who walked in the dark. His combat style had change significantly from the frontline to that of the firing line his mark one lasgun delivering death to their enemies.
He had also given his new lord the names of the leader of team APA and who controlled them from the top.
"The leader of these beasts is named Anavie, and her master is the fallen angel Kokabiel. I do not know what he is planning. I was high enough to learn his name but not the plans. I am sorry, I cannot help more milord."
"It is more than I knew last year Freed. I will have Daliea triangulate our spy bots on him now."
The information that the bots found was significant but also fortuitous for they now had a hint of Kokabiel's plan. The ten winged fallen wanted to set off a second Great War. The first real attempt had actually been made during the night of red flame.
The report dug up from the fallen angel's personal computer had explained that the plan was for the explosion to trigger a conflict between heaven and the devil queen of Kuoh, the plan had failed only because APA had killed the angel watching Issei's home too efficiently and no physical evidence had been presented that an angel had been in the devils territory. Magic signatures alone would not be enough to trigger war.
The skeins of fate had worked against the warmongering fallen and he had been disappointed that the attempt had not worked. It was why Pantier was being sent to Kuoh the next year to prepare for the next attempt.
So, they planned and planned. And as fate continued to turn they realized that Issei had actually managed to accidentally turn one of Kokabiel's people without even knowing it and the mole was contacted immediately by the one they knew only as the weaver and was ordered to begin digging immediately into the plans of their boss and report everything to a contact in Kuoh the next year.
The board was now clearer than ever before and the pieces while set for some were beginning to be assembled by another. The game had finally entered its first stage.
The angel of the stars would fall. To never again rise.
AN. And so ends arc one. Freed is redeemed and will bring his combat skills to Issei's cause. That choice was always planned as was Caroline. The first two laying the beginnings of a new faction that will put humans and others first while trying to not descend into darkness. I know no fear, when I listened to the HH novel of that name, it was after avoiding spoilers something that stayed with me. It took the Primarch that many felt was the most boring and his legion and made them interesting. For someone who came into the Warhammer community through TTS, that which constant jabs at the smurfs. I had a very low opinion of Roboute and his sons. No know fear changed my entire thought process on them. They are now in fact my second favorite of the loyalists with only the Fists being higher. To give up the doubt and the fear, to do what must be done, no matter what the price may be sometimes. That stayed with me. It's shown on the traitors' side as well. I think No know fear is up there in HH with Master of mankind in how good it is. Not in my top five, but up there. This phrase will stay here throughout the book.
ANN to the review asking about why the las-pistol was described the way it was previously that is because it is a mark 1 gun built with the current tech availability, no gun is built perfectly, the gun is able to kill most things in those shots it punchs through armor that is also enhanced to a higher degree. a regular weapon like the modern day ones we have would not be able to do that as easily. As for using a grenade launcher, you could use one but a las pistol mark one is easier and cheaper to make its more motion efficient it helps to off set the fact the armor is slow. Power creep is happening. Future marks weapons are going to increase their killing potential. Again you are working backwards, you dont have all the material or manufacturing tech in our modern day to even make a hint of what warhammer weapons do. you could argue that auto guns are the exact same as modern weapons, i dont agree with that, they have to be stronger because they are killing things that have more armor or the many other differences from modern body armor to what the pdf and the guard use. yeah said armor its shit against a bolter, but against a regular human with similar armor, it has to be able to punch through that.
ANN to the reviewer who is wondering about several things. 1 i will start with the easiest and work my way up. Issei is not a god. you are right a god is forming in the warp, but it is one of the common beliefs of faith in your fellow human beings and to not know fear, Issei is its avatar. this god is a god that knows the human condition all sides of it, good and bad, it will not believe its self above humans and others it is here with us in everything we do. we matter. 2 the relationship between heaven and the churchs is as you can guess extremely complex, the grim never leaves. heaven is in a bind, they want to do more to help humans, but are stuck in an unequal power imbalance that has been getting worse as time goes on. like how the golden throne needs psykers. BG Aka biblical god his system needs faith. also like the throne most of the great seraphs are directly hooked up to the system to keep it running, the big four see what the church has become, a very corrupt and often times evil thing that gets away with what its doing. What gabriel is trying to do is take the faithful who still very much believe and try to reform the churchs, she is just the most outspoken about it, its a battle that needs to be done, yes they will lose the fickle, but the faith they lose is replaced by the much stronger faith of real faithful. the goal is peace but also as always change. future chapter both this and in arc two show that very much.
ANNN this is the last note i will be making a discord. it should be up and running by the weekend and will be included in next chapter.