The Howl interrupted Odia's prayers. It began as a haunting wail across the ship's PA system. The transmission emboldened, splashing across frequencies and jamming the entire radio spectrum. The scream was unmistakable despair.

Odia held a lit censer. Its thin chain draped over her gauntlet, incense wafting over her bolter-pistol. The smoke fluttered, disturbed, and then the censer floated, momentarily un-fettered by gravity. The scream grew. The ship creaked and groaned.

And then, abruptly, it stopped. The censer fell and jangled on its chain.

Fidea and Spera looked up from their bolter rites, alert for instructions, but Odia abided in silence.

Halbert called a moment later and snapped as if agitated by a servant, {Odia!}

{We are ready, Inquisitor.}

{We have a daemonic incursion. Aratri's killswitch failed and her Kill Team is unable to reach her. Remember the Navigator's visual hazard. And there is an additional Electromagnetic hazard. Shroud your armor from communications and act independently until you secure the ship. I can't explain openly.}

Odia's adrenaline spiked and her dimples deepened. {No communications? We need standing orders, then.}

She could hear his hesitation- the crackling spittle as he swallowed his fear. He'd made this exact sound just before condemning Calondria. And he'd recited the same scripture: {Permission to kill is granted to those who serve Mankind, who are beset by many enemies. Verily, our Lord is with them.}

{Shielding EM,} Odia advised.

{Good hunting.} Halbert hung the call.

Spera asked, "Is the Navigator possessed?"

"Radio silence. Weapons free; Engage all obstacles. Fidea, bring the Cutter."

The Kill Team, five guardsmen, made way for the Sororitas as they approached the fire doors. Their Sargent tried to explain, "The damn thing slammed shut on us and we can't trigger our shaped charges!" He held out a remote detonator and clicked it to show.

The Sororitas did not break stride. Fidea deployed her bipod against the fire door and locked it in place, then ordered over her shoulder, "Spera. Clear my exhaust."

Spera stepped out of danger. The Sargent realized what was happening and sputtered, "W-wait."

She pulled and held the trigger, vaporizing the durasteel and spewing slag. The heat wave cooked the troopers' flesh.

Three seconds of subatomic violence was enough. Fidea disengaged her bipod and stepped aside. "Spera! Power Claw!"

She had to shout over the screaming guardsmen, who hadn't had time to die yet. Spera finished shaping the porthole just as the last man's blood vaporized, popping his muscles. His final sigh combusted in his lungs and flickered from his mouth like candleflame.

The sisters stepped through the fire break.

Unexpectedly, the depressurization alarm sounded.

Odia blinked in surprise. If anything, they were overpressure.

Five meters down the hall, gouts of foam closed their path and hardened, forming another wall.

Spera punched through the brittle foam and asked, "That wasn't a coincidence, was it?"

They reached navigation and stacked at the door. Odia ordered, "Blinders." They disabled their optics. Odia pinged the hall with a click, and her visor displayed the echo in blue.

She kicked through the door. Its thunder illuminated Aratri's entryway. Her servitors, all of them, were waiting at the ready, bunched together in formation. They lunged as one, grappling the Sororitas in a massed attack.

Odia's bolter-pistol scattered these forms like wisps of smoke. Spera's gauntlet closed over a face, mushing its gore and crunching its cybernetics. Their blood misted and vanished from echolocation, and the gunshots caromed wildly, lighting the navigation chamber brightly with sound.

When these echoes faded, only Aratri's capsule was visible. Erratic cobalt pulses illuminated it as Aratri writhed within. Her muffled screaming rendered as a light mist around it.

Odia stowed her bolter pistol and scoffed, "Pathetic."

Fidea asked, "Sister-Superior? Do I cut through?"

"This isn't possession," Odia corrected. "She's panicked."

"How can you tell?"

"I've seen plenty of both. Turn off your voice modulation. Hymn For The Reunion of Lovers. Begin."

The Sororitas had trained their bodies for the God-Emperor, voices included. Their song was divine to behold even in echo-visuals. They finished, and there was silence and darkness. Aratri had ceased her thrashing.

"She told me once," Odia explained, "that our prayers echo in The Warp."

"Incredible," Spera breathed. "Is she alright then?"

"No, Spera. She tried to kill herself. Call the servitors. Open the-" she remembered butchering them. "Nevermind. Powerclaw."

Spera made the plasteel scream with every yank. She dialed up the powerclaw's motion settings, and her final tear made a jagged line through the lid and cracked the whole pod. A wave of amniotic fluid sprayed the room.

They pulled Aratri from her capsule and dumped her naked on the deck, where she vomited breathing fluid and shivered. Odia knelt with her and bound the Navigator's third eye with a clamp, then restrained her hands behind her back.

Finally, she ordered, "Blinders off."

Seeing again was like breathing fresh air. The chamber was well-lit, but carbon scored and blood-splattered. Bits of servitor were everywhere.

Aratri cried quietly on the floor, her transparent skin and blue veins convulsing in sorrow. Spera found the Navigator's robe and draped it over her while Fidea sampled the dead servitors for evidence of possession.

"Aratri," Odia soothed. "We believe a daemon has boarded the ship. Can you find it?"

"I can't see anything," Aratri sobbed bitterly. "There's nothing. It's completely dark."

"Return to your basics, Aratri. Look to our Lord. I am told your mutation allows you to do this literally. Is that right?"

Aratri opened her two eyes and looked up at Odia. She whispered, "He's gone. The Astronomican is gone. Now all of us are alone."

Fidea turned to look at them, alarmed. Spera rocked back on her heels.

Odia stood from the Navigator and resumed her resting tone. "You are mistaken. Pray and meditate."

At Odia's gesture, the Sororitas gathered closely and touched for a secure haptic channel.

"The Inquisitor told us to secure the ship. He believes there is a daemon aboard, so we will hunt until we kill one."

"Without using any Electromagnetics," Spera reminded her. "How should we search the ship?"

"I believe the Inquisitor meant that our armor should be shielded. We can use other appliances. Ship systems were used to oppose us- the fire wall and depressure foam- and the servitors. These are linked."

Spera asked, "Why did Aratri set her servitors against us?"

Odia explained, "She didn't."

"Then, the daemon did?"

Fidea shook her head. "There's no daemon in the Navigation chamber."

Odia reasoned, "Someone with control of ship systems tried to protect the Navigator from us."

"Someone gifted in electronic warfare," Fidea mused. "Maybe the daemon possessed the machines? An electronic poltergeist? Is there such a thing?"

"The Inquisitor cautioned us against an electronic hazard, but he did not order us to investigate it. We will focus on the daemon. If it did not possess the navigator and make a show of force, then this daemon uses guile as its method. It may be difficult to locate. I will use Aratri's terminal to establish contact with the bridge."

She led them to Aratri's desk, where she woke a dataslate. The desktop picture was of a handsome navigator from Aratri's house. Odia placed the call.

The Captain's hologram sprung from the slate. {Bridge. Aratri, are you- Oh. Is she alive?}

"The Navigator has been terminated. We were hoping for confirmation that the daemonic incursion is ended. Please check with the other staff."

{Hold.} The hologram switched off. Seconds later, it returned. {Astropathy concurs. The Navigator was the likely breach. Should we signal all-clear?}

"Where is the Astropath right now?"

{He was at the Great Hall. He's still moving fore to his station.}

Odia had the icon of the Inquisition on her sash. She lifted it for the Captain. "On Inquisitor Halbert's authority, shut down the trams. Disable gravity in the transit system as well. To maintain order, claim a malfunction and announce the All Clear."

The Captain blinked rapidly, trying to reason through it, but nodded grimly. {By the Inquisitor's authority, then.}

Odia ended the call and sprinted out of Navigation.

Spera was close behind. She asked, "The Astropath's route-"

"Engineering." Odia turned hard in the hallway, denting the bulkhead with her pauldron, and used the rebound to keep running at full speed. "His objective is the Gellar Field."

They turned again. Civilian passengers had crowded the tram station in a disorganized mob. Odia blared her suit klaxon, but they wouldn't disperse quickly enough. She blitzed through them, severing limbs in her wake.

Spera shouted, "Why did you signal the All Clear?"

"So that he doesn't run. He already has a head start!"

Odia lit her seraphine jetpack so that flaming wings spread and awed the survivors of its fiery wake. She vaulted into a corkscrew maneuver past a tram and fore through its tunnel. The maneuver was too graceful for Spera and Fidea to stay abreast.

She caught him at the secure access point. This final door restricted all but necessary personnel. The Astropath wasn't alone. Beside him, a woman from engineering clutched her ID card in both hands and whispered, "I can't. Honey, you know I can't."

Odia entered the hall to this scene.

The two turned her way, and Odia noted that the Astropath was cradling a baby.

"Finally," he sighed. "Adept, could you talk some sense into my wife? The All Clear was declared. Could you bless a little trespassing so we can take a family photo?"

The engineering woman was entirely organic. Not a cyborg engineseer or techpriest, but a humble crewman. She protested, "We can't bring Baby Ellis into Engineering. I'm not even supposed to exit this door while we're underway."

They both looked at Odia expectantly.

"You wish for me to settle the matter," Odia asked.

They nodded.

"Good. That is why I came. Crewman Ellis, do you believe in a life after this one, in the arms of our Lord?"

The mother hesitated. From the corner of her eye, she glanced to her husband and baby. She glanced again, to the sigil of the Inquisition on Odia's hip, which focused her fear. She nodded, "I do."

"And do you believe that the Master of Mankind protects the souls of the faithful?"

Odia saw her pupils restrict in realization and understanding.

Crewman Ellis shivered, "Yes, Mother" in barely a whisper.

The Astropath tried to interject, but Odia continued, "Do you fear our Lord, above all else?"

The Mother's eyes widened at Odia's bloody armor. She trembled as she nodded.

"Please," she begged, "Not the baby."

The Astropath clutched his child tighter.

"Place your faith in the Servants of the Emperor," Odia ordered. "Prostrate yourself and pray."

Ellis slowly lowered to her knees and bent forward in humility.

Odia squared her shoulders to the Astropath and explained, "Her treasure is stored where no thief may enter. You cannot compel her."

His face changed. A subtle rearranging of muscles- the mask of human empathy evaporated, revealing a resting hatred of goodness.

It addressed her in the Astropath's voice. "Grace. I wondered why I couldn't find you. I never would have expected this."

Odia asked, "What is your name?"

And then its voice changed, too. It answered, "I am She who slithers in the-" but Odia interrupted, "Not you. The Astropath."

The demon growled, "He is gone. Only I remain."

Crewman Ellis sobbed and prayed from her prostration.

"Derrin," Odia remembered. "Derrin Ellis. As a sanctioned Psyker, you were soulburned just like the Navigator. Yet here you chose to be, parasitized and disgraced."

The demoniac didn't react. It was still trying to plot its way through the door.

Spera and Fidea finally caught up and wedged their weapons into the hallway flanking Odia.

Spera haptic whispered, "I have non-lethal. We can attempt an exorcism."

Odia continued aloud, "An Oathbreaker is a feral animal. An insufferable beast."

The Astropath placed his offhand on his only child and calmly said, "Honey. Get off the bulkhead and open the door, or this demon will take my soul and our baby."

The mother's breaths came in heaving gasps as she prayed louder.

Spera tapped Odia again. "I have non-lethal!"

Odia finished, "There is nothing so repulsive to me as weak men."

Then, louder, she prompted, "Crewman Ellis, 'Parent serves child by one measure alone.'"

The baby's mother screamed the answering verse, "THAT HE JOIN IN THE BOSOM OF OUR LORD!"

Odia finished the passage. "Pray to your Lord, and sacrifice to Him alone."

Fidea took this cue and hip-fired her melta cutter, sweeping the room with purifying flame and denying the daemon this ship full of souls.

Since the ship was secure, Odia raised her EM shielding and hailed Halbert.

{Go ahead, Odia,} he croaked.

{It was the Astropath. We neutralized him. The Navigator is restrained pending further investigation. Negative all Brimstone signatures. We believe the ship is secured against daemonic incursion and ready to be sanctified again.}

Halbert blew air from his cheeks. {Good. Dare I ask about collateral?}

{Negligible.}

In a weary voice, he said, {I'll ask The Captain. Write your reports and be ready for more combat. I suspect our troubles are only beginning.} He hung up on her again.

Odia turned back to her team. They were staring into the flames.

Spera noted, "You foresaw its actions well, Sister-Superior."

"I would make an excellent daemon," she admitted.

"I wish you wouldn't joke like that."

"Hey," Fidea said.

They both looked at her. She sent an image to their helms. The last moment of baby Ellis, just as his eyes widened and the shockwave puffed out his cheeks. She'd lasso'd his silhouette and overlaid him onto the Icon of Pleasant Surprises. It was a near perfect match.

Spera added no comment on this.

Odia laughed as if possessed.