9 Chapter: 1.9
Chapter: The Gauntlet
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Part: 9
Onboard Departmento Munitorum: Imperial Transport 'Gauntlet'
Inquisitorial Quarters
Inquisitor Greybrand remained in her quarters, contemplating the rapidly evolving situation. The change in mission directives was sudden and, if she may be so bold, a little... unprofessional.
Still, the Inquisitors were trained to adapt by their seniors... hers had been a lazy old hag who used to assure her that she was going to live for another hundred years or so...
*Sigh*
This mission was fucked up, first, she was asked to inquire about the Tithe and then to wipe out the planet of heretics and then to wipe out the planet itself! Now the Inquisition wanted her to secure a base of operation on the little mud ball for a bunch of rusty tin cans to fondle the tits of an ancient metallic Xenos species.
She stood up, pacing back and forth in her dimly lit chamber, her mind racing through a flurry of possible scenarios.
It was a certainty that going against the Necrons meant gruesome death for her and the two regiments she brought with her. They simply didn't have the heavy ordinance required to combat them, while the Mechanized Infantry could resist the Xenos for a small amount of time, but that too would be futile.
She knew that at least some Mechanicus had a fascination with Xenos technology, but the urgency with which the mission was changing raised some questions.
'Something doesn't add up.'
The Inquisitor sighed yet again, realizing that she had far too little information to make a proper decision.
She pondered her options in this rather... unfortunate situation. If she simply decided to bomb the planet from orbit, she might save the lives of her troops but going against the orders of both the Inquisition and the Mechanicus would likely lead to her rather gruesome demise.
Was she willing to sacrifice herself for the lives of thousands?
The answer was... a resounding 'NO.'
If those memories taught her anything about this world, it was that humans with high moral standards were either the God Emperor's mighty Saints or dead martyrs, and she didn't want anything to do with them.
The best she could do was not blindly follow orders that might lead to her and her troops being sacrificed in a futile attempt to establish a foothold against the Necrons.
She considered how to survive the upcoming conflict, racing through possibilities. The Mechanicus had their own objectives, which included acquiring an STC, studying Necron technology, or destroying it. Perhaps they aimed to do all three simultaneously?
Admittedly, she was a bit dubious about the STC part of the objective, those items were precious few and their discovery depended on luck rather than chance.
As for the Adeptus Astartes, they were likely brought in for additional combat power rather than political negotiation. They usually didn't have any interest in stuff they couldn't kill or use to kill others... 'most,' not always.
The Inquisitor sighed once more, a heavy weight settling in on her shoulders. She needed no more information, the details of the mission were clear.
Some cluster-fuck of a governor discovered a Necron tomb and took a glowing green coffin because it looked valuable. However, the governor's planet was unable to pay its protection fee, so he sold the coffin to Mr. Mechanicus Tin-Can for a large amount of money. The Mechanicus informed its order of the Necron presence on the planet, but they debated what to do with it.
Meanwhile, the big-bad-Inquisition decided to make an example of the planet for not paying its protection fee, so they sent a sacrificial pawn to destroy it. More Mechanicus showed up and demanded a halt, so they could safely extract the Necron Tech. The sector command sent space marines to prevent its territory from becoming the stage for a dick-measuring contest between the Mechanicus and the Inquisition.
The result?
Well, the sacrificial pawn was decided to be sacrificed for the 'Emperor's Cause' of securing the said mud ball.
Oh, what a great honor!
*GROAN*
'This is a mess.'
She wondered, why didn't she simply shoot herself in the head with a bolt pistol round. Evaporate her head? maybe paint a bit of gore all over her 'Private Quarters?'
It was then, that she remembered... death was even worse than life in this wretched universe. Her soul won't be free from her body and into the void, oh no!
It would be cast away by the Emperor for suicide and then she would suffer!
At the hands of the chaos gods!
Endless death and decay from Nurgle!
Or perhaps a discomforting change every few moments for eternity with Tzeentch?
Maybe even a bloodlust so powerful that she would gauge out her own flesh and bone?
The worst would be the excess of experience! Excess of pleasure! Excess of life! Excess of death! Excess of... torment...
'Shit'
A wave of darkness overtook her thoughts, she had made a grave mistake... she had allowed her defenses to slip in a moment of vulnerability. That was all the assistance that the corrupt forces needed to batter her mind, attempting to corrupt her.
*SMACK*
She struck her head hard against the wall and frantically muttered the 'Litany Against Fear.'
"I Shall Know No Fear,"
*Smack*
"For fear is but weakness."
*Smack*
"Fear is the heresy which breeds corruption."
*Smack*
"I will face all fears,"
*Smack*
"And I will yield no ground, nor offer no mercy."
*Smack*
"When fear has died I will praise the God-Emperor."
*Smack*
"For with his guidance, fear is nothing, and I alone remain."
*Smack*
Inquisitor Greybrand continued the litany against fear, each smack against the wall bloodying her forehead in a physical manifestation of her warding against the waves of chaos threatening to consume her. The words echoed in her mind, a stark reminder of an indoctrination hammered into each Acolyte during the early days of their training.
The ocean of darkness subsided, for a moment, a blinding flash of light overtook her, and then... there was darkness once more. But it was the tranquil darkness of the warp as it was, no wild waves of corruption seeking to overwhelm her, no trace of the subtle nudge pushing against her thoughts trying to suggest the 'easy' way out.
Unbelievably, the chaos offered her a moment of respite! Or perhaps it was the calm before the storm. A wait before an even more powerful wave of corruption or perhaps a powerful demon attempting to take over her body?
She waited...
and waited...
and waited...
waiting for the inevitable...
She had been foolish, letting her mind stray so far away into the darkness without strengthening it beyond the norm.
A bait!
Her actions had been nothing less of bait for the demons that inhabited the warp.
Most of them had avoided it, fearing it to be an actual bait! But some had not. Some had charged blindly... and had been disintegrated by that golden light.
Seconds slipped by, then minutes, perhaps even an hour, maybe two, and then she heard it. A soft voice calling out to her! It was saying... it was saying...
{This is interesting.}
Her ears bled as she heard a strange whisper, she looked up, and her eyes saw not the material world or the Immaterium, but an endless void! A wide expanse of darkness blanketed everything in sight, or perhaps she had her eyes closed and saw nothing but the darkness beneath her eyelids... and yet, there was light!
A spec of silver drifted over to her, floating through whatever realm of darkness this was and it flew toward her, tearing through the darkness.
The spec grew! It grew from the size of a grain of sand to the size of her fingertip! The size of a bolter round! Her fist! A plasma grenade! An artillery shell! A human! An Ork! A Chimera! A Leman Russ! A Baneblade! A Thunderhawk! A DROPSHIP! A. TITAN.!
The light was blinding!
The Inquisitor attempted to close her eyes yet she couldn't!
She willed it, demanded it, she begged for her eyes to close!
Her body... did not respond. Or even if it did, the pain did not diminish!
Her eyes were watering and then blood dripped out of them!
But she was forced to witness the glowing orb close in.
It had grown to the size of an Imperial Transporter! A Corvette! A Frigate! A Destroyer! A cruiser!
Her eyes burned!
The glow had grown to the size of a Battleship, then a planet, a sun, and a star system. It might have expanded more but she could not see it, her eyes had melted in their sockets. Some sort of hot, gooey sludge flowed down from her eyes to her mouth, dripping down her chin and onto her body.
But she... was still.
Not once did she let out a growl or howl in pain, her body had had worse than melted eyes. No matter how degraded the Imperium's technological achievements were, the Inquisition's interrogation methods were certainly not outdated. She has had worse experiences, her throat had already let loose its last scream years ago and she had sworn an oath, an oath of silence about the Inquisition's methods and as such she would never scream again.
No, she... was silent.
Still and silent, in the endless void, a single soul, standing... no, 'existing' before something that she could not comprehend.
A voice boomed through the endless expanse of the void, filling her head with a sense of awe, her mind reeling at the mere concept of its existence. The words were neither in common Imperial Gothic nor any Xenos language she knew, yet the message was clear and her mind could comprehend the words as if this being had tapped into her mind to communicate with her.
"Interesting..."
The Inquisitor remained still and silent, facing the bright orb, her eyes melted and dripping, her throat unable to speak. Though she could not comprehend the being's language, its message was clear - the Inquisitor had piqued its interest.
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