Day 25


Praxiah heard the cacophony of battle raging over a dozen kilometers in the distance, the sound of massed las and autogun fire slicing through the air like the peals of distant thunder, reaching even the ears of her command staff in this makeshift command center formed within the depths of the tunnel, just out of range of Janus' artillery. While the Chaos corrupted foe had yet to unleash their heavier weapons on the tunnel itself, likely because they still held the hope of utilizing it in the future, the Canoness was not of a mind to willingly place her neck beneath an enemy's blade simply because she thought it would not fall.

Serrita had done well in the last engagement, so she was present for this meeting alongside Marcus Agrippa, though they were by no means the only officers present for this. Several Sisters and PDF officers of sufficient rank were present, along with Logis Calarn and his retinue of tech-priests and floating servoskulls.

"They've sealed their end of the tunnel except in a few sections, presumably to guide us into killing grounds," Praxiah announced. "I've ordered our heavier equipment to stay in the reserves for the moment." Though she would not say it aloud, Praxiah knew everyone at the table understood why. Lives were cheap compared to tanks. They had too few of the vehicles too expend in traps.

"Our enemy has dug in well," Agrippa said, his arms crossed. "Though I find the lack of abominations among their ranks odd. All that we have fought since our arrival are normal men and women." Despite his words, Agrippa did not seem perturbed, though she wondered if he merely hid his feelings well.

"They have betrayed the Emperor as surely as those we buried behind us did. They no longer deserve to be considered 'human'," One of Praxiah's Sisters, a veteran by the name of Aliciel, spat. Her words were meant as a rebuke, but Agrippa seemed either not to notice or not care.

"If our foes are ordinary people, then I doubt they fight for their masters willingly if they even know of whatever darkness their leaders consort with," Agrippa said, turning to Praxiah and ignoring Aliciel. "If we began taking prisoners, we may be able to convince large numbers of our foes to return to the Imperium."

"This dark corruption cannot be allowed to fester," Aliciel all but cried. "They deserve nothing but death!"

"Do you intend to kill four hive cities worth of people?" Agrippa asked, finally rounding on Aliciel. "I don't believe you have enough promethium to manage that, let alone bolter and autogun rounds. We stand a much better chance at defeating our foe by accepting surrenders."

"Never!" Aliciel said, her hand twitching towards her bolt pistol in its holster. Praxiah's eyes narrowed.

"Peace, servants of the Imperium," She said and Aliciel drew back. She turned to Agrippa. "My Sister is right, colonel, though I understand your wish to keep bloodshed to a minimum. These people we fight are tainted, even if the darkness that has gripped them is difficult to see. We cannot permit that darkness to spread."

They had to assume that the corruption had manifested within rather than without as it had for the poxwalkers. Praxiah had seen more Chaos cults than her nightmares would allow her to forget. This one seemed to be rather young, with relatively few numbers of highly corrupt individuals. That meant that there was still hope for the citizens who had remained loyal in the four traitor hives… But only if the cities could be captured and purged of the unclean.

Agrippa did not seem pleased with that answer, but he did not press the point, instead turning towards other subjects. "I've received word from subordinates in Malum that several of the factories responsible for the construction of new Leman Russ tanks are ahead of schedule."

"Truly?" Praxiah was surprised, albeit pleasantly. She was more used to things being the other way around. "Have you managed to secure any?"

"Eleven are already on their way over in our trains to the rock," Agrippa replied. While he was not smiling, he did seem at least satisfied. "It'll be twelve hours before they arrive and another twenty before they reach us here. Additional shipments should be coming over the next few days and weeks."

Praxiah nodded. The number wasn't enormous, but the implication of having reinforcements trickling in meant she could utilize the tanks she had with less worry about losing all her armor permanently. Normally, she couldn't have expected such reinforcements for at least a week, but she supposed Malum had managed to quickly shift its industry from peace to a wartime footing. It made sense, as they had been the first ones attacked by the genestealers, the first of many catastrophes to deal with.

"Well done, colonel," Praxiah nodded and the man returned the gesture. "With new tanks, we can begin pushing forward and securing positions within the city itself."

Logis Calarn stepped forward and activated a hololithic display, which showed the area around the entrance to Janus. There were several areas of the blue light construct that blinked red. "These areas have been determined from front-line reports and supplementary information to possess heavy traitor presences."

"This map is accurate to the city structure?" Agrippa asked and Calarn nodded. Agrippa pointed to a section of the map which was a strong blue. "That's a service duct, is it not? It connects to outside the walls of the hive."

"Indeed, colonel," Calarn replied and Praxiah thought she might have heard something close to surprise in his voice. "I intended to bring up that very section and recommend an infiltration of the city. I have had it surveyed by servoskull and it is empty of all foes. By securing this tunnel, we could have an unobstructed entrance into the lower city."

"The tunnel is thin," Serrita noted. "We won't be able to fit any tanks in there. Infantry only."

"Well, that's why the God-Emperor has us," Aliciel said with a smirk. "Canoness, let me take my Sisters into the tunnel and secure it."

"It may be safer to send a few platoons of troopers, Canoness," Agrippa said, receiving a glare from Aliciel.

"You forget yourself, colonel!" Aliciel growled. "Your troopers may be impressive for PDF, but we are Sisters of Battle! We fight with His name on our lips and His light in our eyes!"

"With respect, Sister Aliciel, that's precisely why it might be safer to send us," Agrippa replied. "The life of a Sister of Battle is worth more than the life of myself or any of my troops. If the tunnel is not as safe as it appears, better us than you."

Praxiah's brow rose, as did Aliciel's and Serrita's. Even Calarn seemed taken aback at the frank statement. It wasn't wrong, by any means, but it wasn't the sort of mindset one expected a PDF colonel to have. Malum had clearly held back its best when the Imperial Guard had come to recruit, but Praxiah couldn't fault them for that now.

Praxiah could see benefits to sending either group. Her Sisters were the better fighters, but this mission would likely require subtlety, something that the warriors of her order were rarely accustomed to. Nonetheless, securing the tunnel would be of great value to them…

"Sister Aliciel, you will take a contingent of Sisters into the service duct and secure it," Praxiah decided. Aliciel smirked, an unbecoming look for one of her station that she would have to speak with her about, while Agrippa simply nodded in acceptance. He did not seem like he would fight her on the decision.

"Colonel Agrippa, it would be wise to have a frontal assault take place during the tunnel operation, to draw eyes to yourself," Praxiah continued. "I trust I can leave it to you?"

"Yes, Canoness."

What Vidriov was presently doing could very much be considered sacrilege by some. Certainly, if the Inquisitor was in her right mind, she would be less than pleased with what he was doing, not to mention all that he had done.

The Inquisitor's power armor lay in pieces before him, reduced to its component parts, neatly laid in piles. Vidriov stood alone in his laboratory, having banished his subordinate tech-priests. He would introduce them to Tide, eventually, but for now they could have no knowledge of what he was doing. They would not understand.

Taking apart holy machines to understand their functions, much less altering their form was not exactly in line with the teachings of the Machine Cult. Vidriov had walked that razor's edge before, but now he had the sanction of a higher authority. The Machine God had provided him two great tasks.

The first had come in the form of the blessed armor that Tide had appeared to him in. Its design lacked any of the holy embellishments that most sets of power armor had, but that simplicity held an inherent lethality, like the form of a great predator at rest. At his request, Tide had provided him more information on the armor, telling him of a few of its systems. Power armor was difficult to manufacture and the number of factories capable of producing such parts on Monstrum could be counted on a single, unaugmented hand, and even working together they would be unable to produce a full suit, only parts of one.

Thus, Vidriov had liberated the Inquisitor of her power armor. She wasn't exactly using it and Purilla hadn't even bothered to try and stop him. He peeled away its plating, revealing its servos, and began to tinker. His knowledge of the inner workings of power armor was limited, he was a Genetor not an enginseer after all, but Tide had provided insight drawn from the minds of all those whose minds he'd touched. That assistance had excited his mind and surely allowed the Machine God's own knowledge to flow into him more easily. Thus, this was not sacrilege at all, but holy work he was undertaking.

His second task was the more difficult of the two and that was to introduce the Machine God's truth to Tide himself. For whatever higher reason it had, the Machine God had chosen not to reveal itself to Tide and he was insistent that he was not any kind of divine being. It was Vidriov's purpose, ordained by the Machine God, to convince him otherwise, of that the tech-priest was certain.

How he was meant to go about that was less than clear, but Vidriov was confident the path would reveal itself in time. Until then, he would perform his duties and obey Tide in all things, learning all he could.

Catherine tossed and turned in her bed restlessly, her breath ragged. The nightmare had the Inquisitor tightly in its grip.

Can't you control dreams? Purilla asked. A small part of her wondered if this nightmare had been brought about by Tide himself, but she doubted its veracity.

That's one way of putting it, Tide replied vaguely and she wondered if he wasn't telling her the full truth or simply didn't know how best to explain it. Things were… easier in his Domain, she knew.

Can you… stop this?

Dreams help us process our emotions, Tide said. Nightmares and all. As long as you are sure there are no psychic influences on her mind, we should let it continue.

Purilla subtly probed Catherine's mind once more, feeling a shadow of the terror that currently wracked her. In her mind's eye, she saw figures in the corner of her eye that flickered out of sight whenever she tried to focus on them. Rather than snap awake, as Catherine would have less than a week ago, the Inquisitor barely stirred from her restless sleep, perhaps too exhausted to even muster up the effort. There was nothing more Purilla could sense without going deeper and possibly disturbing her sleep, something that had been rare and fleeting ever since the battle.

Vidriov will be by soon for the rest of the armor, Tide informed her and Purilla tried to squash the small feeling of alarm that rose in her. She had become accustomed to being the only one who knew of Tide and hiding that, so learning Vidriov had become like her was… taking some getting used to. She knew Tide wanted the two of them to get along, but even though they'd known each other for years, she and Vidriov had never really… clicked. That was even more true now, as Vidriov seemed convinced that Tide was an agent of the Machine God.

Purilla didn't claim to know what he was exactly, but she knew Tide disagreed with Vidriov and she tended to side with Tide on the matter. Tide had been quite clear he wasn't divine in any way, but if he'd told Vidriov the same it didn't seem to have landed quite as well.

Mostly, Purilla was concerned with Ellen. A large part of her still hated the Inquisitor. Her abuser. However, another part of her recognized that Ellen was what the Imperium and the Inquisition had made her to be. Tide had assured her that her feelings were valid and encouraged her to explore them in-depth when she could, to figure out why she felt the way she did.

Tide had also been teaching her a few exercises to do when her emotions were growing too powerful. They were less effective than his biological ability to forcibly subdue her emotions, but he seemed uncomfortable with using that power and claimed it to be an unhealthy method of avoidance.

Still, the exercises were helpful, especially now that she saw how many of the old ways she'd used to control herself, back when she was an unthinking servant of the Imperium, were monstrous or even actively harmful.

She'd wondered if those exercises were also methods to ward off Chaos, as many of the ones she'd been taught as a psyker were, but Tide admitted he didn't know. Still, she was grateful.

I think I need a break, Purilla thought, partly to Tide and partly to herself. Taking breaks regularly and when she felt she needed them, rather than when she was allowed to, was something new. When Tide had introduced them to her they had seemed almost ludicrous, how would anyone get anything done if they could just stop whenever they wanted? More than that, she was mostly just sitting here, watching over Catherine, making sure the Inquisitor didn't try anything… dangerous. While Tide, having infected her, could physically prevent her from committing such an action, he seemed disinclined towards taking such overt actions if he could help it.

Purilla had hoped Catherine would be up and about by now, but it seemed she would require some time yet. Tide had told her a saying, apparently one from ancient Terra, that when something did not bend it would often break. It seemed Ellen had broken.

In a moment of clarity that seemed to have come as much to Tide as it had for Purilla, Tide had told her that he could not 'fix' people, only help them see how to fix themselves. It was an odd way of thinking, utterly alien to someone from the Imperium, but she was proof that it worked, at least some of the time.

It would take time to see if it would work with Ellen.