015.M42

Planet: Borgon 53/10

Classification: Feral World

Subsector: Borgon

Sector: Miklagard


The site of the small settlement seemed so distant to him, the sounds of life being far away from where he and his squad's Rhino had settled. With a squint, the small cogitators in his helmet zoomed in, bringing human shapes and structures of metal bearing the stale, prefabricated style that could be found on hundreds of settlements within the backwaters of the Imperium. A wall or more accurately a circular rampart surrounded the settlement's ten to fifteen metal hovels and the drinking hole on its far side and separated it from the outside world. More figures patrolled on it with a pair of them manning a heavy bolter emplacement, the only weapon in sight that could hurt him or his men and belied the fact that this settlement's purpose was far from legal.

Just another hole of excrement, thought Sergeant Ulf Theodorus before looking back at his squad. Nine of his Marines, clad in their black and purple power armor of the Miklagard Praetorians, were making final preparations for another assault, checking their weapons, retrieving new magazines from their Rhino, exchanging a few words and going through the motions of field work. Such raids had turned into a routine for the Sergeant and these men.

This was the fourth smuggler settlement that they would hit in short succession, one of the many that dotted a world like Borgon 53/10 and each one of them enforced Theodorus' belief that they were wasting their time and resources in an operation that was turning into an expensive training exercise.

It all began three months ago when Chapter Headquarters received an emergency transmission from Inquisitor Maria Marzpan, an old acquaintance and ally of the Chapter, a rare occurrence between the members of the Holy Ordos and the Adeptus Astartes. The Inquisitor seemed in immense distress, captured by forces unknown and requesting assistance. The message was on repeat, clearly an emergency procedure. The Chapter Master tasked a force of the Chapter's Fleet to search for the servant of the Throne yet as they cleared the first location, the plot thickened. Every time they managed to isolate the signal, the location was empty with only some means of extending the Astropathic signal, a net of proxies that confounded searches. Moreover one message source turned into many, necessitating a large number of vessels to search effectively.

And thus Ulf Theodorus, Sergeant in the Glorious Fourth, the Founding Company of the Chapter, veteran of a thousand engagements and a tens of wars found himself kicking down smugglers' hovels in a forgotten world like Borgon 53/10. A bitter smile formed beneath his helmet as his vision returned to normal, the helmet's mechanism refocusing his vision before he turned to the small wrist cogitator on his armor. Just another day in the Adeptus Astartes, he thought. As much as he was willing to shoulder the weight of responsibility that came with being one of the Emperor's Chosen, frustration with the trivialities of military existence grated at him sometimes, a fault of his character that decades of service hadn't sufficiently removed.

"Frigate Vespasian, this is Squad 01. Ready to hit settlement four, over" Theodorus relayed to an orbiting frigate, the only vessel of the Chapter Fleet earmarked for Borgon.

"Shipmaster acknowledges Sergeant. We have you on the spectrum and the vox master confirms that a signal signature is present in the settlement. Over" the voice of one of the chapter serfs came clear onto his headset. He wanted to scoff at the vox master's findings, thinking that after the third false positive of this world alone, he had no right being referred to as the master of anything yet deeply ingrained training held him back.

"Copy all, Vespasian" he said instead. "Report after conclusion of raid, over and out", Theodorus said before he returned to his Marines. "Squad, helmets on and board the Rhino. You know the drill by now. We go in hard, eliminate all threats, verify the signal source", he relayed the tried and true version of the mission briefing and he saw that his Marines were as well versed and used to hearing it as he was saying it to them. His Squad moved neatly and professionally into the vehicle with one of them emerging from the cupola to man the Storm Bolter on it. Theodorus was the last man to enter the vehicle and the red standby lighting flooded his vision. The APC began moving and started picking up speed before the familiar crackle of the Storm Bolter shed the night air of this backwater planet like rippling canvas. The gunner, a Marine named Titus Mendel, was an experienced soldier and that showed as his bursts were extremely controlled, coming in precise, three second intervals. After the last one, the cabin of the Rhino was shaken as the vehicle crashed through the flimsy gate of the roundel fortification. Autogun bullet pings were heard on the Rhino's outer shell before the backdoor slung open.

Theodorus was the first out, turning his Bolter Rifle to the first targets he came upon, a pair of youths handling crude Autoguns. They didn't have the time for their courage to evaporate in the split second before they exploded, most of their bodies turned into a fine mist. Two more of their comrades had that luxury and decided to throw down their weapons. One of them was even fast enough to turn away from the advancing Marines before another shot from Theodorus cut him down first, followed by his other comrade. The Sergeant turned to covering his sector after that as he waited for the Marines to disembark. The source of the signal appeared as a bright red spot on the small map of his Heads-up Display within his helmet.

"Vladimir with me, we take the left flank. Sections 2 and 3 will take the center and right. Section 4 clear that establishment over there. We all converge on the signal" Theodorus relayed quickly, deciding on the simplest approach in clearing the few hovels that comprised this settlement. Him and his Squad moved in coordinated precision. Leaning into the low windows proved somewhat cumbersome for soldiers of their stature but they did their bloody work. Most hovels were full of civilians. Women, children, boys, the families of the criminal elements or the smugglers that used this place. They cowered as he and his giants peered into their low houses, spreading their hands in supplication, praying not to be shot. Theodorus would grant them that favor as long as they didn't touch a weapon. He wasn't unreasonable and his men had the same orders.

However all were not as cooperative. As Vladimir leaned to check into one of the houses something akin to a bolt round kicked him back as a man's voice came from the hovel in the planet's rough Low Gothic dialect.

"Alright Vlad?" Theodorus asked in a calm voice.

"Yes Sergeant. Frags?" Vladimir proposed.

"Affirmative" Theodorus replied and alongside Vladimir retrieved one of his frag grenades. With coordinated movements, they threw in. Fearful screams came in reply before the explosions silenced them. Vladimir leaned again and confirmed that the hovel was clear of hostiles.

The Marines cleared the smuggler settlement in seven and a half minutes, a full thirty seconds faster than the last. Yet as they pulled the settlement apart, the source of the signal eluded them.

"Are you sure?" Theodorus asked as one of his Marines showed him the readings of a small Vox device. By all the readings they should be on top of it now yet all of that he could see was the floor of a prefab.

"Absolutely sir. Vespasian also confirms the reading location" the Marine said as he sounded as perplexed as his commanding officer. Every previous time, they always found some cogitator that forwarded and repeated the signal or some horribly mutilated psyker that amplified it; however none of that was present here. Theodorus flipped his wrist cogitator and confirmed what his Marine was telling him.

"Throne take them…" he muttered as he exited the hovel and looked at the direction of the drinking establishment that used to be the center of the settlement. Five neat rows of captives were on their knees in front of it, guarded by Titus on his Storm Bolter on the Rhino. Theodorus looked at them and back on his wrist cogitator. He didn't waste much time, moving towards the crowd with large steps. Unholstering his bolter pistol, he shot once in the air to arrest their sniveling. "Did your small den of criminality have any hidden passages?" he spoke loudly, the speakers in his helmet amplifying his voice. The crowd seemed stunned. "By the Throne, I haven't hurt any of you that didn't lift their arm against us. Do not test my patience" Theodorus told them. He only received shrieks and stunned glances. Fine. An example then, the Sergeant thought. Lowering his weapon on one of the women on the first row, he prepared to fire until he saw another prostrate herself in front of him.

"Beneath…Beneath, my Lord" the women spoke in mangled Low Gothic, pointing out one of the prefabs close to the signal but not directly on top of it.

Theodorus looked at the building she pointed at. He pointed his armored finger in confirmation and the mortal woman nodded furiously. He nodded to her to return back to the crowd. "Section 2, you have prisoner watch" he relayed to his Marines before explaining to his Rhino driver what must be done. The APC began pushing the prefabricated metal hovel out of the way with a grating metal sound. "I wish we had brought the dozer blades" Marcus Alexander, the Rhino driver muttered as he skillfully took advantage of his vehicle to the maximum. It took him a few more minutes than expected but he did the job.

The metal door to the area beneath the prefab was a two man operation. It opened slowly, steam and clockwork lowering it into the ground as Theodorus and his Marines pointed their bolt rifles to it. They thought they were prepared for what laid behind it.

They were not.

The chamber was smaller than expected, the size of a small recess in the ground yet it did not need to be any larger. The room's arrangement was rather simple but then brutal in its simplicity. A robed figure hanged mutilated, mechanical prods picking its brain in exact motions. It groaned like an overgrown grox, repeating sounds that it did not understand anymore.

"An Astropath…" muttered Vladimir as his Bolter Rifle was temporarily lowered before he brought it up again. "And…"

"And the Inquisitor…" Theodorus said as he saw the severed head in front of the Astropath. He was familiar with the appearance of Inquisitor Maria Marzpan from the briefings but all those pictographs had a body attached to the head. The Inquisitor's body was nowhere to be seen, everything below her neck being replaced with tubes, feeding dark fluids into her from a machine at the side of the room. Yet the detail that made this truly despicable was the fact that she spoke still.

"This is Inquisitor Maria Marzpan, Ordo Malleus and member of the Miklagard Conclave, requesting the assistance of the Miklagard Praetorian Chapter of Space Marines. I am in need of rescue. This message will be repeated automatically" the head spoke again and again. Theodorus stepped lightly towards the… mutilated? No, mutilated is too generous, he thought and pushed thoughts of characterization away as he decided to face the Inquisitor. The head acknowledged his presence.

"You are a Miklagard Praetorian" the bodiless Inquisitor said.

"I am Lady Inquisitor" he replied with as light a bow as his Power Armor allowed.

The head smiled and almost grinned even. "Did you locate the other relays? On the planets other than this one I mean" it asked. Theodorus nodded in the affirmative which prompted a laughter. A horrible, hair-razing laughter that had no right coming from a thing with no lungs began emanating from the head. Theodorus' Marines looked at each other and then him, totally confused but still on standby. The vox connection with Vespasian crackled next, useless drivel and highly scrambled sounds coming out of it until it became a continuous noise that prompted Theodorus to turn it off for him and his men.

"You and your Battle-Brothers will be taken by the void, Sergeant. Miklagard will not withstand the Deluge this time" the head of the Inquisitor spoke and finally died. Bolter bursts and maddened shrieks spread behind Theodorus from where the prisoners were as streaks of light dotted the sky above him.