Date: D?. Y977. M31. MI60
(note this has been translated so mortals can understand the way gods speak to each other, as gods do not speak mortal languages to one another)
The warp and by extension the entities that inhabit it are ever changing, the most notable of these beings are entities like herself, gods, beings that can wield incredible power and influence within the warp and in the material realm, via their own power and the use of their followers.
Millions of years ago before what is called the War in Heaven by the very few humans who still know of it, the warp was a free and endless expanse where gods were created and destroyed very quickly, it was a endless battle ground where the numerous species gave rise to numerous gods who all vied for supremacy.
But again the warp was an ocean of opportunity, those who could wield the energies of the warp were never in danger of being possessed or having their souls molested by the melicious predators of Chaos, because back then over 60 million years ago Chaos didn't exist.
However this all changed from the arrival of the Old Ones, a species whose mastery of the warp and all its mysteries allowed them to capture and experiment on gods, their technology allowed them to conquer most of the galaxy, however hampered by a near non existent birth rate the Old Ones relied upon 'Warrior Races' to fight their wars for them.
As such when the Old Ones came across the intergalactic void they completely destroyed many of the species who had initially resisted them, in the now dead species places they seeded dozens, hundreds even of these 'Warrior Races' on the now free space created by the Old Ones colonization efforts in the Milky Way.
But a few survived notably her children, the Aeldari who were still in what would be considered the stone age and thus were not considered a threat, but most importantly the Necrons would be one of the only spare faring species to avoid the unjust slaughter the Old Ones had committed across the galaxy.
The dystopian Necron civilization rose from what is now known as the Ghoul Stars, a region that was and is rife with warp storms that hid their existence from the Old Ones, as such they would slowly expand across the Ghoul Stars, however as they expanded they would suffer from a problem that has plagued every space faring species in existence, internal division.
As far as Isha knew civil wars were disturbingly common in the old Necron civilization, before the C'tan, the 'Star Gods' of the material realm introduced themselves to the galaxy, the Necron were led by hundreds of dynasties who were only loosely held together by three leaders known as 'Triarchs' with one Triarch being the Emperor of the Necron as well.
The last ,and as far as she knew the still current Emperor of the Necron was the Silent King and he would wage war against the Old Ones to unite his people against a common foe, she did not know much about this particular conflict all she knew was that the Necron lost and were nearly wiped out.
Her knowledge on the Necrons and the events during this time was very limited but she knew it was during this time the C,tan, hateful and hungry, introduced themselves to the galaxy, convincing the Necrons to give them physical forms.
From there the rest is history, her children were made into a Warrior Race and her family was forged into weapons, then alongside the Kork and the Rangden, and their gods Gorkamorka and the Grave Mind, they fought in the War in Heaven.
It was in this war that she was introduced to Humanity, a race strikingly similar to her own but also different in many ways, but most importantly she met the (at the time) one and only god of Humanity, the Anathema, who the Old Ones, like her and her family, controlled in order to keep the Warrior Races in line.
During the war they had become fast friends and if she were to describe their relationship during the first few millennia after they had met, it would be one of a student and a mentor as apparently the Old Ones had fused the largest five gods of Humanity together to create the Anathema, who knew a lot about warfare among other things but had been emotionally and socially inept.
Speaking of these five Gods, along with the few family members that she still had, she had been perturbed by their declaration of 'unity' and 'justice' and most of all by their vow to destroy the 'Eldar Domain'.
What concerned her was that they made no distinction between her children within the Domain who had lost their ways, and the ones who still maintained their values in the Sanctuary.
This lack of distinction suggested that they would target only the degenerate Domain, but also the Sanctuary, did she think that the Domain should not be punished? No, for all the pain and misery the Domain had and still caused they deserved some type of punishment.
But the Aeldari in the Domain and the Sanctuary at this point were almost completely different societies, with their own culture, traditions and practices, as such to hopefully put these fears to rest she had gathered the only other two Aeldari gods who were still active.
First was her husband, currently the god of wild animals and untracked wilderness, they had been together before even the War In Heaven, their relationship had seen highs and lows across the millennia, currently they were in a low as with the 'disappearance' ( disappearance, not death, Isha would never accept her death) of their daughter, Lileath the goddess of fortune and dreams during the War of the Gods.
They had both taken a step back to drive with this loss and had not spoken much to each other in fact the last time they had met face to face was during the founding of the Sanctuary some scant two and half millennia ago, when she managed to convince him to officially support her in her endeavors.
Kurnous like every god of the Aeldari Pantheon looked like their mortal subjects, but unlike the modern Aeldari he had on a fine animal skin, on his head he wore the skull of a long extinct apex predator to describe what it looked like you just have to imagine a deer's skull with large antlers.
Then there was her brother Cegorach the god of creativity, trickery and deception, he had also joined her during the founding of the Sanctuary, but she wished she could say it was out of familial love for her and her goals of saving the mortal Aeldari from the themselves, but she would be delusional if she did.
Cegorach had never been the same after the War In Heaven, as like her father he had suffered from his encounters with the C'tan resulting in the mortal equivalent of losing his mind, as such he had most likely joined to push his own ambitions using his followers within the Temple of Cegorach, these followers were known as the Harlequin's.
Cegorach was dressed in wraith armor accented by dark blues and blacks but the most striking feature that would draw one's attention was Cegorachs mask, on his face sat an opera mask that would change based on which personality was currently dominant.
Finally there was Vaul, currently the god of craftsmen, who was not with them as he was currently still near the Sanctuary to assist in its defense in case the Domain or the few warlords still within the webway attacked, all in all there was not much to say on his current task.
Meanwhile she was dressed in a simple white tunic that reached down past her knees, while it looked like it would do nothing to stop incoming damage it could withstand everything from regular laser fire to concentrated orbital bombardment, if she wanted something tougher she just had to put on her own wraith armor that she could summon at any time.
Isha knew that she could rely on Tuirad to properly defend the Sanctuary as his experience and competence was great, but given recent events it was reassuring and practical to have a god close to their base of power in case the threat was too big for the mortal Aeldari to contain.
Of course there were more Aeldari gods, such as her father Kaela Mensha Khaine, her mother Morai-Heg, and the Phoenix King Asuryan, but they had not been seen since the War of the Gods almost 40 million years ago and her efforts to locate and bring them to Molech were fruitless.
The rest of the Aeldari Pantheon was either dead or had flat out refused to join her efforts in returning the Aeldari in the Domain to their ways before the Great War and the War of the Gods.
The currently dead gods were Gea and Hoec, the gods of beauty and assassins, the ones who had refused were the gods of the Exodites, Aeldari who had fled the Domain and settled down into a reclusive and simple life, they were the Cobra, Scorpion and the Serpent gods.
Finally was the most… interesting god, the god of death, Ynnead, as far as she knew Ynnead was a god who was still in the gestating stage that all gods go through, this current state of being was one that was similar to that Thing that her lost children worshiped in the pleasure cults but they could not be more different.
While 'Slaanesh' was the god of pleasure, pain, hedonism, excess, perfection and decadence, lust, pride and self-indulgence, Ynnead was simply the god of death and of the dead even so she was unsure of what to do as only recently did Ynnead catch her attention.
But that would have to be figured out sometime later down the line as she brought herself out of her own thoughts, she and the rest of her allies in the Aeldari pantheon were currently on their way to confront the Human Pantheon to learn their true intentions.
Wading through the warp was a dangerous task for them as the territory of the Aeldari Pantheon had diminished significantly after the Great War and the Fall of the Temples, as such had carefully made their way to the warp space above Humanity's homeworld, Terra.
This was done to hopefully so they were not there to fight or to challenge them as she knew that Terra had always been considered a 'neutral zone' by and between the Big Five so hopefully that would extend to themselves so they could have a discussion.
Along the way it was obvious that they were being watched by the servants of the Big Five the entire way but the fact that they had not been stopped yet was promising, but still did not tell them if the Big Five were willing to talk, this could even be a trap.
Not only that but they had to take a detour as the Prince of Khorne was still waging his campaign of slaughter and rage against the forces of the Big Five, as such getting close would have been troublesome at best and would only impede their progress.
However as they had gotten closer but before they got to Terra itself, they felt a presence approaching, it didn't try to hide itself or what it was, an old and wise being that had seen it all, this told them exactly who it was.
Turning to both of her allies Isha gave them both a knowing look, her husband Kurnous just nodded with his empty eyes not reflecting any emotion, meanwhile Cegorach just laughed and gave her a mocking smile, Isha would then turn back to the approaching presence.
Out of the warp energies that would look like clouds to mortals came out a being that appeared to be an older human. with a white sheepskin cloak, a trusty walking stick and a black head wrap.
'The Shepherd' Isha thought for no reason in particular, the Shepherd would look them over before pointing his walking stick at them, "speak your piece, I don't have time for dishonest pleasantries" the Shepherd said in a bored tone.
"We are… troubled by your 'proclamation' and thus we have come to confront you on the issues it may cause between our peoples" Isha explained, the Shepherd would just glare at them searching for a lie or malicious intent 'all the more reason not to trust them' Isha thought.
"They will not be willing to negotiate with you, the wounds of conflict and their grudges against you run too deep, even I agree that the Domain deserved to be whipped off the map" the Shepherd said, "I do not care it has worked before it will work again" she replied resolute.
The Shepherd merely shook his head while lowering his walking stick "you negotiated with the Anathema, things are very different these days" the Shepherd explained "but if you wish to do so then follow me" the Shepherd said as he turned around and merely walked back the way he came.
Isha soon followed after him the two other gods behind her doing the same, however as they followed the Shepherd his presence became harder to follow it seemed he was now actively concealing it from them, for what purpose they could only guess.
They did not bother to look for him either as they all sensed much more powerful and hostile auras just a little ways away (relatively for a god of course), so they knew where to go, as they approached the warp space above Terra they all kept their guards up and prepared for a fight.
As they entered Terra's warp space it became obvious that there was not going to be a battle just yet, as they immediately spotted four beings standing at one end of a circular table, they were the Father, the Desert Warrior, Karma and finally the Son, what was odd was that she knew there was supposed to be two more beings in attendance.
Isha, Kurnous and Cegorach all approached said table and from there a tense standoff until the Father would speak "you are very bold to come and demand answers from us" the Father stated "we merely wish to for you to give us guarantees that what we have built and that our efforts will not be trampled" Isha replied.
"Really? And what would you give us in exchange for these 'guarantees?" the Father questioned "we would give you some of our most powerful mortal servants to represent the Sanctuary and host a garrison of your Galaxia Warriors to bolster relations" Isha said.
"We would also open diplomatic channels between our two species to forge stronger ties between the Sanctuary and the Federation" she finished, the eternal light shining from the Fathers face did not waver as he shook his head dismissively.
"That is not a fair trade and you know it, servants can be replaced, sending a garrison to fight your wars is not what we want, yet" the Father said, Isha was slightly confused but quickly put two and two together "you wish to wage war against my people?" she asked now in a much more defensive posture.
The Father did not react to her change in tone "yes and do you know what we plan to do to every Eldar within the Domain?" the Father asked, she immediately noticed the use of the more crude term for her children 'Eldar' "my people within the Domain have committed many wrongs against you and for that I apologize, but cant you see we have a much greater threat on the horizon?" she said.
"If I remember correctly the Great War was started by the Eldar due to the rise of the pleasure cults, yes?" the Father questioned as he changed the subject "yes that is basic history for a god, what does that have to do with us here and now, do you believe that Slaanesh is truly the larger threat?" she asked bewildered.
"He is trying to say that your 'replacement' is a key component in the large schemes of the Chaos Gods and their great game" the Desert Warrior said "as the few laws of warp dictate a god needs mortal followers to survive, kill off all its followers and future prey then it will wilt and die" Karma added.
They had said a few things in those two sentences but the one thing that hurt the most was that damned word, 'replacement', why? Because she knew that they were right, after the War of the Gods, the Aeldari had created Slaanesh as a replacement to the Aeldari Pantheon.
Even their logic was something she could not refute, if another species was gestating a god that the Chaos Gods were using in a scheme of theirs she would have that species basically wiped out, but these were her children no matter how much of a hypocrite it made her, and no matter how much her lost children deserved to be punished, she would still fight for them.
"I will NOT! Sit by while my children are executed, you will do what you wish but you will not destroy our civilization, you are not speaking in good faith" she stated, the Father did not seem surprised "obviously, now you stay out of our way and we ignore your irrelevant state, do we have a deal?" he asked, the Father had clearly gotten what they had wanted, justification.
This meeting had not gone at all how Isha had wanted, her goal had been to acquire some guarantees, gain trade deals for more resources and to hopefully cause a proxy war between the Aeldari Pantheon and the Chaos Gods using the Federation and the Human Pantheon as the a stick against the Domain, but that had obviously failed.
"No, no we don't, I know you have just cause to despise my lost children but why, why do you seem to despise my people within the Sanctuary?" she asked grimly "the Anathema-" "the Anathema is dead, dead and gone, ashes to the wind, in short your friend is no more" the Desert Warrior replied coldly.
The Father nodded in agreement as Karma then spoke "you come to us expecting forgiveness for your species and even the Bloody-Handed's crimes against our people, how, substandard of you" Karma said with a hint of anger in his voice.
"So every mortal Aeldari is guilty? That truly is some flawed logic" Isha shot back, "maybe, but how do you propose that the Unborn God should be destroyed?" Karma said, anger would ripple through Isha and her two allies behind her, "I do not know, but I believe that there is another way" Isha said, but it was obvious to all that she did not know or even believe that.
"You try to paint us as the bad ones here, there would not this 'other way' that you propose if it was us on the chopping block of required extinction" Karma said "we are not perfect, far from it, but you put up a facade-" Karma was then cut off mid sentence before he could make his opinion of her known.
"Speaking of such topics" the Son spoke for the first time in the conversation, in the process interrupting the unfolding argument "we would humbly request that you reveal your fathers whereabouts, it would greatly hasten the process of fair justice" the Son said with a calm and respectful tone, which was a surprise.
But she still could not grant such a request, doing so would only harm her position and would not make her any more popular with the three gods in front of her "im sorry but I can't grant such a request" she replied, although their glares got much more intense, but she had weathered worse storms.
"Then this meeting is truly over, Goddess of Rebellion" the Father said, he stood up and revealed his wings, the halo on top of his head glowed with an intensity that would kill most mortals, it was then that dozens of portals opened behind him, with thousands of angels pouring out into the warp space above Terra.
"I best suggest that you all get going, thank you" the Father said, as both the Desert Warrior and Karma brought their weapons forth, the Desert Warrior raised his spear with its curved blade and many runes, within the palm of Karma's hands, balls of black and white would appear, a karma circle forming on his back.
"Now I suggest you move on quickly, you are not be welcomed here" the Father said calmly "you will not win, that is for certain" Isha vowed, with that the three Aeldari gods turned and left, she did notice the look of regret the Son had on his face as they did so, but ultimately she paid it no mind.
Soon they were dozens of sectors away from Terra, they were now within the warp space of a long dead system that had been stripped of all its resources before its population was destroyed in some long forgotten tragedy, deeper and deeper they went into the warp passing many levels, all the while being careful to not go to deep, soon they were deep enough to have relative privacy.
It was there that she stewed in her anger, her form would change with claws growing from her fingers, white wraith armor accented by pinks and purples forming around her, this was because she was the goddess of the hunt, Isha only ever used this aspect of herself during battle or when she was royally pissed off.
Isha then materialized a spear from the warp energies around them and started to kill off a few random warp entities, every stab and swing killing off thousands of them, the shockwave of her attacks causing ripple effects to affect the material realm, likely destroying most of the system in the area, maybe even affecting more populated systems.
She would only stop for a moment when Kurnous placed a hand on her shoulder "are you alright?" he asked, she was about to throw him off her but she saw that just for a few moments his eyes held some life again before they returned to being empty of anything.
She still shrugged his hand off her anyway "no, no im not because for allies I have an apathetic father who can't let go of the past and psycho who only pushes his own interest" she spat at him as she turned around violently "then get this, I have the ENTIRE GALAXY!, seem to unite against me for the 'rightcous' cause of my children's genocide!" Isha yelled at him.
Isha then placed her hand on her temple while dropping the spear, she just needed a second to compose herself so she simply sat down in a cross legged pose, Kurnous then followed her and surprisingly sat down beside her, Cegorach meanwhile had stopped his constant giggling, the space around them was dead quiet.
"Why" Isha asked "why, what?" Kurnous replied his voice while dead tired, was once again still holding on to some long lost ember of love and care "why must I bear the responsibility?, why not Asuyian the Phoenix King, why not my father the Bloody-Handed?, why not even my mother? The old crone" she asked.
He simply shook his head, "fate is a fickle thing, it decides things at random without care for one's wants, needs or emotions often getting things wrong in my opinion" Kurnous said, she turned to look at him, curious as to where he was going with this.
"But I know for certain that it made at least one correct decision, it made you the only one would can save the Aeldari" he stated "look at me, not only am I weak, but i've lost all care for almost everything around me including the mortal Aeldari" he said.
"Cegorach? We all know he only cares so long as his ambitions are pushed and kept secure" she knew exactly where this was going now but she did not care to stop it as she felt long lost feelings well up inside her "but you? Somehow even after all this you still care" he said.
"You fight for them, you want the best for them, you still love them" at this point Isha's armor and claws representing her aspect of the hunt had begun to fully disappear "and that's something one struggles to find these days, a leader who can and will do the impossible if it means that a mortals life is preserved, after all that's why I loved you, still love you" Kurnous finished, correcting himself at the end.
After hearing that Isha decided to take a deep breath and calm down, afterwards she stood up offering her hand to her husband pulling him up "thank you" she said, he nodded with a small smile before his eyes returned to being empty of any emotion.
Just then Cegorach made a noise the sounded like he cleared his throat to get their attention "excuse me" Cegorach said, as the mask on his head did not change "what is it-" Isha began but cut herself off as she then sensed two presence's very close to them, they were both very familiar.
Isha whipped around to see the Shepherd standing not too far away, another being with a suit, a crown of horns and red skin would be right next to him, it was the Fallen Angel, Isha then whipped around to Cegorach, her face holding a look of annoyance.
"Why didn't you tell us?" she asked Cegorach annoyance as she glared at him "weeellll" he began "you two were having a moment, it would have been rude to interrupt, ask them they'll agree" Cegorach said smugly while giggling.
Sighing, she turned back to the other two human gods "why, are you here?" she asked carefully, the Shepherd spoke first "let's not beat around the bush we are here because we do not agree with the Father and wish to forge a deal, not an alliance, between us" he said.
"How can we trust you?" she asked, the Fallen Angel would then speak up "we are going to tell you the truth, we do not really care much for the Aeldari race however do you know exactly how the Father plans to destroy your children?" he questioned, she shook her head.
The Fallen Angel held a serious look as he spoke "he plans a total take over of the Federation, abolishing its democracy and its freedoms in the process and using its resources to wage war against their enemies" the Fallen Angel said.
Isha nodded, she had known the Fallen Angel much longer than the other gods in the Human Pantheon so she gave him a modicum of trust but she could not say the same for the Shepherd "and why do you care? You have the most to gain from his plan" she asked the shepherd.
The Shepherd looked down, seeming to contemplate his response before he spoke "my people have long suffered from prosecution, prejudice and hate, in short I know in intimate detail what it's like for my people to lose their freedoms" he said.
"Now if you would allow me to provide proof that would be excellent" he said as he raised his walking stick, Isha hesitated for a second but decided that if she wanted any chance at stopping the Fathers plans she needed to at least humor these two.
She nodded as she was then bombarded with vivid memories, she saw the jews being led by moses as they fled from their horrid slavery while being pursued by the egyption pharaoh, moses parting of the red sea, she saw their oppression by the romans, the caliphates, the numerous empires that ruled them.
Most notable were these 'nazi's', an entire ideology dedicated to destroying those deemed 'lesser' in order to advance the standing of themselves, she saw the largest battles of the time, the concentration camps and much, much more, Isha had seen enough and quickly dispelled the memoires.
"While those are not all that I could share, those are certainly the most memorable" the Shepherd said, she simply glared at him "what is this 'deal' you're interested in?" she asked him, however it was the Fallen Angel that spoke up this time.
"This would be a deal of mutual benefit we wish to stop the Fathers take over of the Federation, you wish to stop him so he doesn't wipe out 90% of your people using the Federation, you stand to gain from this" the Fallen Angel concluded, his words were clear but Isha took a second to consider the proposal.
Could she trust them was the largest question of them all, however that one quickly solved itself, the truth was she didn't need to trust them as all she had to do was send someone of a slightly more expendable nature as 'help' and watch as the Human Pantheon would supposedly fight amongst each other.
Isha let out a small smile as she spoke "I accept, now how do we make this official?" she asked, the Fallen Angel smiled as well, he then snapped his fingers a piece of paper appearing from thin air 'a contract' Isha thought now slightly more wary of this deal.
Contracts, like names, could give you a certain level of power over another within the warp, thankfully the amount of power knowing one's name could give you was limited as such a god was just so powerful that knowing their real name did not matter.
It also did not even matter if it was a lowly warp entity that knew her name or if it was one of the chaos gods it did not give them enough power over her to make a difference, however contracts were a different beast altogether.
Contracts meant you were bound to whatever its conditions were, no matter how powerful you were you could not break a contract unless the other party had violated it first, not only that the party who violated said contract could not leave it, but again the other party could leave.
This meant that both parties would avoid violating the contract unless they were in the best position to do so, the contract would only end when both parties verbally agreed to end it, in conclusion contracts were dangerous and risky but could be beneficial to both parties.
Looking back up at the contract she read and reread the scroll before taking the pen given to her and writing her name, then in order to make the contract valid the Fallen Angel then took the pen in his hand and wrote his own name down.
With the deal having been struck the two human gods would nod in a silent 'thank you' before they turned and left "well that was strange" Cegorach said before bursting out in a fit of giggles, Isha just rolled her eyes before turning around and walking past both of them.
"Isha, if I may ask, what is the plan now?" Kurnous asked her, Isha looked at him and smiled once again.
"We do what we do when we need the Temples, we call a meeting" she said as they raced off though the warp towards the Sanctuary.
—-
Date: D073. Y977. M31. MI60
It had been almost two months TST since the Temple of Ynnead had left the Sanctuary in order to go to Molech, it had been a difficult journey as they first had to avoid the warlords and raider gangs that still occupied some parts of the webway blocking the only routes to Molech through the webway that had not been consumed by 'The Forsaken Abyss'.
So they had gone into the warp, this was dangerous because unlike the humans who had the Big Five to protect their shipping and warp lanes from daemons they had none of that, instead the Ynnead Fleet had relied upon thousands of powerful runes and the ceaseless efforts of Turun and his Farseers.
They had recently arrived at Molech about a week ago, to what end? Well it had been to find a 'God's Formula', as to where and how exactly they could find it on Molech the Goddess of Rebellion herself had told them that there was an ancient facility underground they could find it in.
After they had located said facility they would search for the central control room which contained the 'God's Formula', from there they would establish a garrison planet side and report back to the Sanctuary on their success.
So far they had not had much luck in locating the facility, their sensors told them something was down there but whatever advanced technologies this facility was equipped with kept them from knowing where.
As such they had (begrudgingly) gone to the local human government, who had large mining operations going on in order to duel the local economy, this was to hopefully acquire some idea of where the facility was not and find it via a process of elimination.
Thankfully Molech held a small enough population that it did not have one of those 'Disjointed Organizations' that always seemed to be hell bent on making life for everyone who was not them difficult, so when they had asked the corrupt chairmen took a small bribe and gave them the schematics.
Although they had later figured out that he had short changed them by not giving all the schematics, a few shuriken bolts dealt with that problem and with that they had gained all the schematics, then with some negotiates they achieved the submission of the local PDF who didn't want to fight for some corrupt politician and also had guarantees that they would not all be butchered and enslaved.
'At least they have some common sense' Tathyan Hryphon thought as she looked over the numerous reports the Path Masters of Geology and the Path Masters of the Machinist on their efforts to search for the facility using the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for short.
The Path Masters were an often overlooked aspect of the Temples, if you wanted to know who they were they were basically the equivalents of a human who is an expert in their field of work, these Aeldari were then recruited/hired by the Temples who would make great use of their experience.
Currently she was looking over another report that said the same things as the rest "High Priestess we come with unfortunate news that we have not found our target please forgive us we will continue in our efforts" Tathyan mimicked the voice of the Path Master who probably wrote it.
It was childish but who was going to see and judge her here in her office, no it was quite obvious that everyone walked on eggshells around her even in the reports, 'good' she thought to herself, as much as she wanted to be respected through acts of charity and kindness there were to many that would simply take advantage of that and thus weaken her standing.
'they need to listen to me, to do so they need to respect me as the highest level of authority, and to do that they need to fear my wrath to some degree' Tathyan thought as she leaned back in her chair, anything to ease the mind numbing boredom she was experiencing.
"Danger, dopamine levels down by 80 percent" Aveen stated who was just as bored as she was, they had both already finished their daily tasks and had checked in with everyone they possibly could, in the end it was just a waiting game for when they found the facility.
So Tathyan slipped deep into her thoughts, Turun was of course the High Farseer of the Temple, but he had also been one of her first friends during her time on her birth world of Biel-Tan, they had met during the war of the Followers of Ynnead and Kabals of Biel-Tan that has started thousands of years before they were even born.
This conflict had been brought about because before the Sanctuary the planet of Biel-Tan was repressed by the other surviving Temples via a policy of starvation using an embargo of all imported goods due to them allowing the free worship of Ynnead.
Being so isolated from the rest of the galaxy by simple location and even the rest of the webway by politics and religious differences did not make for a great economic or even political situation and as such conditions were less than bad, food and clean water was not only expensive, but was also hard to come by as such most Aeldari lived hand to mouth, because of this crime and riots were common.
With all these issues the politics of Biel-Tan were less than stellar resulting in a disunified government fraught with political violence, soon a Kabal known as the Kabal of the Void's invaded and the central government had collapsed with gangs that had formed after the Kabal of the Void's had collapsed itself taking over soon after.
These gangs wared with each other in regularity, exploiting the population of Biel-Tan to extract all the resources they could from the world they occupied, not giving any care to nature or to the damage they caused as the Archons of these gangs lived in palaces in the tallest buildings.
However there was hope in the Followers of Ynnead, a group who via acts of civil service had largely won over the support of the public and with information acquired by Aeldari traders, who had once been a part of the other Temples, they had trained up their followers to be combat effective.
Thus thousands of years ago, right before the rise of the Sanctuary the Followers of Ynnead waged war against the Kabals of Biel-Tan, with the war escalating continuing on for thousands of years and escalating every few centuries until almost nothing was off the table, this was the reality she and Turun had grown up in as they were born a few decades before its end.
They had been trained as Aspect Warriors from the moment they could walk and before mathematics, reading or even basic psychic techniques they had been taught that their death would only further the cause.
She and Turun had not questioned it and had followed such rhetoric to the letter, she had lost many friends to the mentality that encouraged Aeldari to throw away their lives for a cause, in fact she had almost lost Turun and her own life on multiple occasions.
Eventually the Followers of Ynnead won the conflict liberating Biel-Tan from the Kabals but the extreme recruiting and teaching policies continued among many other extreme things, but at the time she and Turun had believed these things were totally normal.
But that changed as they met and interacted with the third member of their little friend group Meleth, by that time she had become an Exarch of the newly established Temple of Ynnead and Turun had become a Farseer, in order to show good faith to the other Temples the High Priest at the time, Saimin Naudoc, had sent the both of them to meet with a few Corsairs of Commorragh.
One of these Corsairs was Meleth, she along with a few others had been chosen by Tuirad himself to meet with them and to go on various missions to prove that the two groups could work together, this resulted in them spending large amounts of time on deployment together and sharing war stories.
It was there over decades they learned that no it was not normal to draft children as soldiers and to feed them propaganda since birth, although Tathyan of these days knew such things were wrong her past self had believed fully in these practices as it was she had known at the time.
It had taken understanding from Meleth and the rest of the Corsairs to help her and Turun see why there views were wrong and if they had started with a bias against her and Turun's beliefs then they probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere and thus the Temple of Ynnead would have never joined the Sanctuary a scant few centuries later.
So when she and Turun had returned to Biel-Tan to an irate populace they were not surprised, in the last time since they had left and returned the Aeldari who had grown up and had children were openly protesting the extreme measures that had been in place since the war with the Kabals.
As mentioned before most of these Aeldari were of a new generation who now had children and did not want those children going off to a war zone at the ripe age of ten to fifthteen, the people wanted change but the leadership didn't, a common but dangerous dilemma.
The protesters were only missing a leader, this was something that she and Turun filled perfectly as such they organized the protesters and started putting petitions forward for change that they both knew was desperately needed.
The both of them also further spread this message by doing public appearances and secretly speaking with many Exarchs and Farseers they had been acquaintances with before they had left, attempting to convince them to support their goals.
While this had mixed results it still had the intended results of putting pressure on Saimin, who would routinely speak on how these policies were necessary and would suppress their protesters, but due to their pressure he began to frequently replace both the High Farseer and the Phoenix Lord as well as many Exarchs.
This only pushed more skilled Aeldari to join her and Turun's side and soon they had a large enough military force on their side to force the issue and with an expected guarantee of support from the Sanctuary a civil war looked imminent.
Unexpectedly however before any violence could break out Saimin would make an announcement that shocked just about everyone, he would go on to say that he was well aware of the rising tensions inside the Temple of Ynnead and that the division was a plot by the Sanctuary.
But he also recognised that he had been outplayed and that a war would only bring more unneeded pain and suffering to the populace of Biel-Tan and that in these troubling times the Temple of Ynnead needed to be united.
As such he would declare that he was stepping down from his position as High Priest and would officially make Tathyan the new High Priestess of the Temple of Ynnead, she still remembered hers and everyone's reactions vividly it was a large celebration, one that could make one believe that they had won a war.
Soon after she took power she named Turun as High Farseer and as a token of good faith and after some negotiation with the Sanctuary she named Meleth as Phoenix Lord, from there they made much needed change and began the integration of Biel-Tan and the Temple of Ynnead into the Sanctuary, as per their deal with Tuirad.
This process would take centuries longer than it should have, thanks to the founding Temples who saw them as heretics, but they could not go against Tuirad openly and could only delay so eventually when Tathyan, Turun and Meleth were all about 700 the Temple of Ynnead joined the Sanctuary.
And thus for the next 300 years they slowly continued to build their power to defend themselves from the Kabals and sabotage from inside the Sanctuary itself, however even after centuries they were still considered outsiders by much of the Sanctuary's populace.
So it was a major deal that Isha, the Goddess of Rebellion herself, gave them this secret task as it was a major sign of trust between the Temple of Ynnead and the ones with the real power in the Sanctuary, the gods themselves and their corresponding Temples.
As such it was imperative that they did not fail this task, it was then that Aveen spoke up once again "High Priestess!" Aveen said with excitement "what is it Aveen? I'm currently thinking about something" Tathyan said "They Found Something!" Aveen nearly yelled with excitement.
Tathyan shot up in an instant but maintained her calm "put her on, now" she said with haste, a hologram of Meleth then appeared in full military garb, given that the planet was very hot they must have been uncomfortable "Meleth" "Tathyan" they both greeted each other before getting down to business.
"You have found something, explain" Tathyan said, she didn't like using her no nonsense voice with a close friend but now was the time to be serious "Yes High Priestess, while scanning in one of the deepest of the humans mines the Path Masters are believed to have found the entrance" Meleth stated.
"Can you get in and if so do you need any reinforcements?" Tathyan asked, in response Meleth would just smirk "of course High Priestess, and no I do not I have done more with less" Meleth replied, with that confirmed Tathyan would just nod "go forth to succeed Meleth" Tathyan said.
"Thank you I will not fail, goodbye for now good friend" Meleth said as the hologram turned off leaving her office once again in a state of silence "you're still worried" Aveen pointed out "yes I am, because as important as this mission supposably is the Goddess left out some key details" Tathyan said.
"Bring up our fleet's current positions" Tathyan said, Aveen quickly brought a hologram of the Molech system, said system had two planets, the farest out and least important was the planet of Molech Secundus a cold icy planet that had a miniscule population and held nothing of importance.
Then there was Molech Primis, the planet the Temple of Ynnead was currently investigating, the planet had a tropical climate with four main continents Estara, Neuropia, Arcanius, and Molechari, with the one they had presumably found the entrance being Estrara.
Molech Primis was also where they had most of their fleet stationed, with a few destroyers and fighter squadrons on the systems outskirts for scouting and recon, in total their fleet had 38 Destroyers, 28 Cruisers, 12 Battlecruisers, and a single aircraft carrier.
About 25% of their Exarchs were planet side alongside many of their most skilled Farseers and Path Masters, not only that the local PDF had agreed to withdraw from the continent of Estara until the Temple of Ynnead left, and with no fleet to speak of an attack from the native humans seemed unlikely.
While nothing had gone wrong now it could always go wrong in the future, she could only hope that Ynnead was watching over them.
—-
Date: D073. Y977. M31. MI60 (on Molech)
Meleth was currently walking down the precarious tunnels that had been mined out by the humans towards the entrance to the facility, behind her followed a few dozen Exarchs and their Aspect Warriors, all of them were making last minute checks to their equipment and mentally preparing for the challenge ahead.
The entrance to the facility was over a full mile down in the earth and from the reports the Path Masters had provided the facility itself extended down much deeper, as such they had brought a large amount of equipment in order to get around any obstacle that may present itself from caved in sections to self defense mechanisms.
While she had most of the Exarchs currently with her, she had also left a sizable garrison of the surface more specifically at the mines entrance to keep order and to prevent or quash any 'unforeseen' problems, this was simply because she didn't trust the humans.
It perplexed her as to why Tathyan would even trust the PDF given that if this mission was as important as it was claimed to be than someone would oppose them, be it the local PDF or the forces of Chaos themselves some unforeseen force would in the end oppose them, and Meleth wanted to be ready for that.
Anyways, they had arrived at their destination, it looked just like the rest of the mining tunnel with the only difference being the consoles and computers that lined that walls showing the large amounts of data that the Path Masters had collected, all these instruments were centered around the large GPR that had been effectively put up within the center of the tunnel.
They quickly passed the makeshift lab, the Path Masters kneeling before her as a sign of respect with one of them approaching her to join their group "High Phoenix" Irarai greeted while bowing "Path Master, I assume everything is proceeding as scheduled?" Meleth said.
Said Path Master would pick himself up before speaking "yes we have acquired much needed data and are as prepared as we can realistically be" Irarai said his voice openly showing his excitement for his discoveries 'he his no soldier, not in the way I am' Meleth concluded.
Although all citizens of the Sanctuary were required to serve in its Armed Militia for a minimum of ten years, with many going on to join a Temple, after those ten years many more would simply pursue their passions and follow a specific path or as the humans would call it a 'career'.
"Path Master, how much military training do you possess?" Meleth questioned, he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before replying "I served for twenty years in the Armed Militia before pursuing my chosen path, High Phoenix" he replied quickly.
"Good remember your training, you may need it" she said as they continued past the lab to the facility's entrance, the entrance was very large and was actually exposed in a natural underground canyon that was almost 100 feet across and went down for miles more.
The entrance itself was about 15 meters tall if she had to guess, a bridge connected the side she and the Exarchs were on to the entrance, as such they lined up single file to cross the bridge in an efficient manner, along the way many Exarchs and Aspect Warriors would be slightly awed by the massive canyon and its many features.
These features would include amazing waterfalls running from underground rivers as well as the many stalactites and stalagmites that lined the sides of the walls, Meleth herself however didn't even bat an eye as a Corsair of Commorragh she had seen many different places both beautiful and disturbing.
They soon reached the platform in front of the entrance, Meleth would nod to Irarai as a signal to go ahead and he quickly got to work on a computer that had been connected to the entrance, soon the entire canyon was rumbling with bits and pieces of the earth falling upon them.
As the entrance opened blue fluorescent lights clicked on while a large amount of dust crashed into them, 'that color of lighting is slightly strange' Meleth noted, thankfully it was no issue only getting their immaculate wraith armor a bit dirty, "alright stay focused and ready, we move out now" Meleth said as she dashed forward with speed and grace.
Around half of the Aspect Warriors and all of the Exarchs followed her intent on clearing out the large room of any threats while the rest stayed back as planned in order to protect the Path Master who specialty in computers and ancient tech would be very important to the mission, she also didn't trust his combat skills, she didn't trust a lot of things actually.
Anyway the room they were clearing just turned out to be a large hallway with another large door at the end of it and with the blue light illuminating their way it seemed as though nothing could threaten them here, however this only served to fuel her paranoia, her eyes flicking from one direction to the other.
"High Phoenix, are you alright?" one of the Exarchs asked, Meleth merely glared at him before relenting, that was until his head was cleanly separated from his shoulders by an invisible attack, blood spurting from the stump that was his neck.
It was complete silence for about half a second before Meleth's voice broke it "MOVE YOU IDIOTS!" she yelled out, they all immediately drew their blades and shuriken pistols while getting into group circles in order to cover each other's back as two more, both Aspect Warriors, got their heads cleanly cut off, in total there were seven groups that had formed.
"Switch Visions!" She commanded as they all swapped from regular to the many different modes of vision all their helmets possessed, while this was happening Meleth stole a glance at the rest of the Aspect Warriors who had formed up in a line with their backs to the canyon with the Path Master behind them.
'Thank the gods' Meleth thought, now with that out of her mind she focused on the problem in front of her, the enemy was clearly invisible 'but how?' she questioned, switching between the many different visions that her helmet provided like night vision and thermal, however nothing was appearing.
"DUCK!" she shouted, the Exarchs in her circle followed her command and fell to one knee as she felt a rush of air from an attempted strike go over her head, her instincts then screamed at her that another attack was coming from her right, she knew from centuries of experience to listen to them and quickly raised her sword and parried the invisible attack.
Her instincts continued to warn her of impending doom allowing to block a few more attacks but she was quickly being overwhelmed as the enemy had had now seen that she was the leader, soon however the Exarchs and their Aspect Warriors noticed this and moved to protect her, but not before their invisible opponents drew blood from her in the form of small scratches.
Meleth then crouched down as the attacks continued, now with some breathing room she assessed the situation, somehow their opponents invisibility was all but perfect however such a thing was impossible without the use of a psychic technique.
'Wait' Meleth thought as she focused on her surroundings, not with the use of her eyesight or with one of her five senses, instead she used her psychic powers to assess the battlefield, soon she managed to pinpoint the cause of her enemies' perfect invisibility.
'The Lights!' she concluded, quickly she stood up and took aim with her pistol she would then systematically shoot out the blue lights that illuminated the large hallway and pulsed with psychic energy so hidden that she had almost not detected it.
The Exarchs and Aspect Warriors saw what she was doing and followed her example, "Night Vision!" Meleth Commanded to her Exarchs they quickly followed the order, now they were face to face with the enemy.
They were all organic in nature and resembled the common insect known as the centipede as they were all dozens of feet long, its body was dark and appeared to have thick armor that was layered on making each movement look like it had on plated armor.
These monsters had dozens of eyes built into their heads, these eyes darted around with each eye having at least one Aedlari in its sights, the mouths of these creatures had split jaws and hundreds of razor sharp teeth all of them spinning inside their mouths like a wood chipper.
The monster's bodies currently held their heads above the battlefield allowing them to look down upon the Aeldari like they were superior, 'not anymore' she thought as she gave a single command to her Exarchs and their Aspect Warriors "kill them swiftly" she commanded, the Exarchs would charge and quickly start cutting away at the centipedes armor.
The centipede would screech and the one above Meleth would dive down towards her mouth first intent on swallowing her whole, Meleth would first unclip a Krak grenade, this type of nade was an anti armor grenade that was commonly used by the humans but given how cheap and versatile it was, the Temple of Ynnead had long adopted it with their own design.
After uncliping the nade from her utility belt and priming it Meleth would toss it up and simply roll out of the way with lightning speed that was enhanced by her psychic prowess and her advanced wraith armor, the centipede would crash down in the spot Meleth had been standing in before.
The centipede's eyes would all stare at her as the beast then attempted to strike at her with one of its scythe like arms, Meleth merely side stepped this attack the blade would miss her by inches the pain from slamming its arm into the ground would cause the monster to scratch out in pain, it was music to her veteran ears.
Meleth would then decide to give in to the urge to showboat a little bit, after all the battlefield was her element and nobody could take that from her, so she would run at the beast and kick off of its armor skin its bladed arms missing her as she back flipped and contorted her body in ways that seemed impossible to any other.
She would land around two dozen feet away from the centipede, looking around she saw the the Exarchs had crippled the centipede she was fighting as well as the many other centipedes throughout the large hallway by cutting of their legs at the joints, a disgusting yellow blood flowing from the centipedes wounds.
Finally after an astonishing six seconds the nade finally went off cause the head of the beast to explode chucks of the beast flying in all directions, turning around she would go to gather the scattered Exarchs and Aspect Warriors but would spy the corpse of one of the crippled centipedes moving and spasming.
She prepared for some kind of trap but was left dumbfounded as an explosion torn a hole open in its side, the Path Master Irara walking out with an almost baffling amount of calm, she immediately looked over where she last saw him, the Aspect Warriors still at the entrance turning around to follow her gaze, 'at least i'm not hallucinating' Meleth concluded.
"Good afternoon High Phoenix" Irarai greeted as he whipped some blood and guts of his armor "we're still on schedule right?" he asked, Meleth has only half listening instead she was chastising herself of losing track of him due to her own ego, however she would still respond.
"What role did you fill in your unit Path Master?" she questioned, "oh, I was the demolitions expert" he replied "you know computers make fine bombs, just a little wiring and some electricity and BOOM! Just like that, I'm out of trouble" he said, she wanted to reprimand him but just scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Move out we remain on schedule" Meleth said before turning her glare to the Aspect Warriors still at the entrance "don't lose him again, your role as an Aspect Warrior depends on it" she said threateningly, they nodded before they continued on to the door at the end of the hall, destroying all the blue lights along the way, they didn't want any more surprises.
Meleth would nod to the Path Master as he began to work on the door by quickly setting up a portable computer and plugging it into a small terminal that was next to the door that had only been spotted as they got closer soon the door would begin to slowly open revealing… an elevator.
"This seems anticlimactic almost like this was the calm before the storm" Irarai said, a small glare silenced him as they all got onto the platform and would soon be heading down into the depths of this facility, all the while the Path Masters words would sit in the back of her mind 'the calm before the storm' she thought.
Although she hoped her intuition was wrong she could not help but agree with that statement.