Note

I'm listening to the Ravenor audiobook series at present, Tony Longworth has stolen my heart and nowadays whenever I read a text my mind edits it so that the voice in my head speaking is Toby Longworth. I also like how Dan Abnett switches from first person to third person then back again. I really like first person books as it really gives you a real sense of the character(s) but I also like the wider detailing of third person books.

I decided to incorporate both into this story as well.

Chapter 2

Light had become Matt's whole world, all around him was a vast expanse of light so bright that not a shadow could be cast, it was so bright that he had closed both his eyes. Or more accurately he had been forced to turn off his bionics, but for simplicity's sake let's just say he closed them and turning them back on would be opening them.

"Alright when I open my eyes I will be by the emperor's side" he thought, getting ready to turn them on with a thought, when he did he had no doubt in his mind that he would see the Emperor sitting on his golden throne waiting for him.

"Here goes" with that thought, he turned them back on.

THUNK

He impacted hard, front first into a tree, he then slid off the bark and his private area landed on a protruding branch bellow him, "oof!" he exclaimed winded and clutching the area around his family jewels as he rolled of to the left and continued down, hitting his back, his arm, his hip, his shoulder and ribs. Finally he hit the ground at the base of the tree. He sat there groaning, his entire body in pain, his knob being in the most pain.

"Woof" barked a familiar Mastiff, Brutus waddled up to him, he seemed perfectly unharmed, if a little shaky judging by the way he swayed from left to right then back to left.

He eagerly licked his master's face which gave Matt quite a start, "gah" he complained as he felt the wet sandpaper tongue explore his face, "get off" he laughed after realizing it was Brutus, relief at his pets safety giving him enough energy to stand up despite the stiffness and aches he was feeling.

"Good to see you alive. You are alive right?" The bounty hunter patted himself down, he felt alive, his body seemed to be intact and a cursory examination showed that he still had everything on his person. He broke out into a hysterical relieved laugh, "We ARE Alive!" he whooped as he fused over Brutus who jumped and barked excitedly.

"Minor Oxygen intoxication" something in the back of his giddy mind told him, "i'm happy not just out of relief but because i am breathing in more oxygen"

Though it couldn't be a whole lot more than the average on Necromunda otherwise he would be in even more agony than just a few little aches that were quickly going away. Maybe even dead. After rolling the stiffness out of shoulders and calming down from his overly excited state. Matt looked around.

He was in a forest, an actual forest full of naturally growing trees and not ones kept in the gardens of the rich back in the spires. He could see the sky, perfectly blue and full of pure white fluffy clouds, non-toxic ones at that. underneath his feet there was green grass and flowers.

"Brutus i've a feeling we ain't in Hive Primus anymore" he told his Cybermastiff who was sniffing the ground, "or on Necromunda for that matter" Brutus grunted as he cocked his leg and took a piss on the tree.

Matt ignored that and instead began walking, he had no idea where he was going, but it was certainly better than standing around and doing nothing.

Matt POV

Blood of dorn this world was beautiful, Necromunda was a shit-hole that had some charm to it, but this made me gape like a child, enthralled by the beauty this world had. I even saw some very colorful birds flap overhead in the trees. Real birds, not the rust vultures or cyber enhanced sheen birds.

Birds that were covered in bright feathers made sweet sounds and were allowed to evolve to be small and almost cute, dare I say it.

The Color's really popped, they were so vibrant and colorful. That might sound unimaginative but it really did make me feel like I stood out, especially since I was wearing a very dirty brown trench coat

I hated standing out. I didn't like being the center of attention, it made me uncomfortable and so I felt rather subconscious of myself, feeling like I was being watched by invisible eyes.

Lifting my hand up I pressed a button on the right side of my head and activated my auger array, scanning everything around me. The entire landscape(to my eyes) had turned a dull cloudy sheen of gray but everything living was highlighted in orange.

I could make out birds, a creature with antlers and other small mammals.

"You'll tell me if you see anything right?" I asked the metal skull that was attached to my left shoulder, as I turned off my auger array. It was a poor attempt at humor to try and help me relax rather than a genuine question.

I was on edge the whole walk through the forest gun held up in both hands ready to be aimed and fired at a moment's notice.

But finally after what seemed like an hour of walking, we came to a set of rails, I recognised what they were immediately. Train tracks in the mines within the Ashe wastes the Orlocks would set these tracks to quickly and easily take large masses of iron and other raw metals from especially deep parts of the mines to the surface of the Ash-wastes.

If I followed them, I might find my way to civilization and perhaps an imperial outpost. I'd have to assess my options after that but it was better than nothing.

No POV

After walking for nearly half an hour, a train finally rolled past, it was fast and came so suddenly that it jolted the hired gun out of staring into space, "Scav!" he swore, recoiling at the train going past him at high speed. Brutus barked at the machine. It wasn't like the plasma powered Mega-trains that exist in the hive of necromunda.

It was more akin to the size of the trailers used in the Ashe Wastes, if longer and more streamline, the brief glimpse Matt got of the front half had it with a single engine with a large funnel at the front which was still puffing out smoke. The rest of the train consisted of identical carriages all way too well detailed and stylized in Grendel's opinion as they blurred past.

He caught brief glimpses of Windows and people inside them though they were far too distorted to make out.

Finally the end of the train was in sight and Matt wasted no time as he backed up, ran a short distance and timing it right jumped up and onto the back of the caboose, Brutus jumping up a second later.

Now the landscape became a blur as they rode on. Matt decided they would be there for a while so he sat down on the floor leaning back against the wall, Brutus curling up close beside him and they watched peacefully as the landscape passed them by.

It was relaxing actually, he even took off his mask from his face, took out one of his lho-sticks and lit the end with his zippo. For what felt like hours they traveled, the landscape going from forests to hills, big hills with trees covering them. "I think I like it here. Think I might stay actually" Matt thought to himself.

But there was still the matter of that Witch, she had been at the back of Matt's mind but he would need to tell the local planetary defense force about the psyker that had teleported them to this strange new world.

After a while, Matt had lost track of time, a man came out from the door next to Matt and a man in overalls walked out and began turning the wheel at the edge of the handrailing, the screech of brakes resounded out soon afterwards.

"We're stopping," Matt said quietly to himself, flicking the lho-stick away.

The man went to return inside but then spotted both man and Mastiff sitting right next to the door, the man stared at him, "i'm just here for the ride" Matt said waving him away, "don't mind me"

The man continued to stare for a moment before walking back inside, hushed conversation could be heard through the metal wall behind the bounty hunter's head.

The station they arrived in was very small, it was gorgeous and clean, all of it, it was a small town he arrived in, compared to the habs on the hive worlds it was barely a few kilometers long, with small stone buildings with sloped tiled roofs. He could see them from where he was at the station.

It was almost child's play grappling up to the roof of the station after getting off the back of the locomotives caboose. Before jumping back down the other side. All of a sudden though Matt felt very much noticeable. The moment he saw how many people were around he felt like he stood out.

Everyone around him was dressed very casually and cleanly, some had very short sleeved clothes, some had bandana's wrapped around their heads, but not one had any sort of visible scarring or bionic on them. Not a single weapon on anyone either, not like everyone back in the hive of Necromunda would.

He, by contrast, wore a very drab trench coat embroidered with stitches, pouches and buckles, not to mention the skull shoulder pad, bionic arms, large autogun and massive bionic left eye.

And if that wasn't a big enough contrast, those people that had dogs were small and fluffy and honestly rather cute. Brutus meanwhile was mostly metal, his jaw with a metal plate fused with it and his legs were bionic and deadly looking with one unblinking eye.

Not one hound he saw had so much as a wire on them.

Furthermore, the vehicles were all carriages, animal drawn.

Matt hated standing out, he hated to be the center of attention in a massive group, granted no one would know about his bounty here, but still having so many eyes on him would be unsettling to him. Especially after that relaxing ride on the train he didn't need the unease he got from being constantly looked at by so many people.

He tried to stay as close to the outskirts of the streets and pathways as possible trying his best not to be noticed or look like he was trying his best not to be noticed. Finally he ducked into an alleyway and his nerves settled, the cool shadows cast by the building blocking the sun felt so good on his skin(what was left of it anyway)

He also bumped into people here but these were closer to his kind of people, the ones he was used to, the undesirables, the ruffians.

Thugs, prostitutes, one man twirling a knife might have been this world's version of a ganger talking to his mates. But even these people looked like they had it easy.

But the more Matt looked around town, the more disturbed he began to feel as there was no Imperial presence he could see in this town. No imperial guard imagery, no propaganda posters. Not even a law enforcer that had the hallmark of imperial.

There was also no imagery of the Emperor, or any saints, no Aquila, no statues, not even a church with a mural. No pict screens, no cogitators, no Servitor's, none of the standard imperial tech.

Worst of all, what little credits he had would not work, he had observed some people trading and buying stuff and each time they would pass small green rectangular pieces of paper in small piles of crumpled handfuls to each other in exchange for a bag of fruit or some cans.

All that time he asked questions, whenever he could "excuse me ma'am but do you know where any local law enforcement is? I'm lost?"

The woman looked a little startled at the sight of him but gave her answer

The answer was that the police station was 2 left and right down the street, what was a police station? The local law enforcement?

"Pardon me kid but..." the kid yelped and ran away upon spotting Brutus before Matt could answer.

"Hey Sir, do you know where the nearest Imperial outpost is?" The man had no idea what Matt meant by Imperial, this was where Matt started to get worried.

On and on the questions went. eventually he had gotten so frustrated that he began asking bigger questions.

"Hey, what year is it?" The elderly woman looked at him as if he was crazy. "X780 sir" what in the name of Terra did that mean 780.M42? Was he really transported 700 years into the future?

"Hey you, what is the name of this bloody planet?"

"E-earth land sir" the man quailed, shaking in fear at Matt's frustrated question, wondering if he was insane.

Earthland...

That was the final straw, Matt found a nice quiet corner in a back alley and stayed there while the sun began to set.

Earthland. What the hell. This planet shared the name of Holy Terra itself, but why bother adding the land part in at all? There was no imperial presence to be seen here, he was as lost as anyone could be.

So many questions and Matt was too tired at this point to care, he had one final smoke as the stars began to come out and everyone went to bed, his Mastiff lay under him, a sort of substitute Pillow.

The Mastiff's cybernetic enhancement had meant that he was very pleasantly warm to the touch, so even In The cold night, Matt slept soundly enough as the night drilled on.

They had called her the Alpha.

It was the only thing they called her, she had no name like the others, she was supposed to be special, she had been separated from the rest, she didn't know why, but they always kept her away from the others, in that small box.

All she had was the nice voices in her ear, encouraging her, helping her. Finally the others had led the escape, she didn't know or remember how they did it but they did it, they had escaped, from those mean men and their especially nasty handler's.

The Handler's had metal staves, black robes, metal bugs, and they could do what they did, mind-stuff, magic. Not long after she and the others all had a collective dream, a dream of paradise, of no oppression, of no cawdor's calling them Witches and no mean men keeping them in small boxes.

They had made the book, the book that now waddled next to her, with mud and a disheveled copy of the book of faith. It had given them the words for the way to paradise and the Alpha would often play with it as it opened its pages and gave her fun stories to read.

Finally she was her, but the others were dead, the spell had worked, but she was alone, it was night time, she was along in the forest, she was scared, she eventually crawled into a nook between 2 massive tree roots, curled up and cried openly, crying and crying, until she had finally cried herself to sleep.

Matt POV

First time waking up with the sun in your eyes is not a fun experience, even if you have bionic ones like I did, i was so used to the dark and cramped spaces of the underhive that my retinas stung behind the metal lens and i had to go through the process of getting used to the brightness that i went through when me and Brutus got sent to this emperor forsaken planet.

"Up Brutus" I said gently by firmly patting my Mastiff's shoulder and he lifted his head up, one eye opening, the other one, the bionic one lighting up . I stood up and rolled my shoulders a little bit before doing a cursory check of my possessions, nothing had been stolen during the night.

No one was out on the streets yet, which told me it was early morning, the shops were still closed and shadows were still very long and the air was chilly.

With nothing else to do, I thought out a small metal can, one of my emergency corpse-starch cans, opened it, scooped up the bland mush and ate it off my fingers, whipping any small bits off on my trench coat.

After finishing the can and letting Brutus lick out any remaining scraps, we wandered around town, not really doing anything, we sat on random stools, got up and walked around again before stirring back down on another one.

Every so often I would take out a lho-stick and smoke for a couple of minutes.

Time passed by and by now it was mid-morning if I had to guess.

An hour later me and Brutus were on this bridge overlooking the coastal area of the town, smoking a lho-stick casually with my mask down around my neck and the wind in my face and all that, and down below there was a rather large crowd of people, mostly women as well.

In fact, it was all women, no men, in fact the only man in the crowd was the one in the dead center, he seemed to be the center of attention.

He looked highborn, or as highborn as you could get on this planet that didn't seem to have an obvious class divide. To my knowledge the common folk and even the poorer people seemed to be better lived in than most people in the lower spires.

This man had a black cloak draped around his shoulders, a fancy white suit and trousers, rings lined every finger of his hand, I couldn't make them out as well. Zooming in on his face, quite literally(a useful trick I personally integrated into my left eye) I could see he had dark blue hair and a tattoo of some kind on his forehead.

He was striking poses to the girls and the girls were cooing as if the man was Ciaphas Cain himself.

However, a pink haired teen walked in, seemingly eager to see the man, but then he slouched in disappointment and turned to leave. Only to then get mobbed by the crowd of now angry girls.

It was honestly rather entertaining to watch, almost comical how the girls clobbered him, poor fellow, the worst way to get mobbed by girls. The man however cooled the situation and helped the teen to his feet.

He said a few more parting things I couldn't catch. Dramatically flourished, before flying off on a carpet. Me and Brutus followed the carpet, astounded by the sight.

"Well that was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?" I told Brutus flicking ashes off the end of the lho-stick.

"Umm excuse me sir?" A voice asked behind me.

Reaction made me drop my lho-stick, whirl around and draw Ironside, pointing it at the source of the voice. The voice belonged to a nervous looking middle aged man with glasses on his head and a fancy suit over his person.

"What do you want?" I demanded as the man panicked and threw his hands up in the air, sweating from his forehead.

"I-I-I just want to ask if you-you a-a-are a..." he stammered

"What?!" I demanded more forcefully, stepping forward with the gun still pointed at his head.

"A-are you a w-wizard? Sir?"